“What's the matter with you, Unc' Billy? You look as if you had lost your last friend.” It was Jimmy Skunk who spoke.  
Unc' Billy Possum stopped short. He had been hurrying so fast that he hadn't seen Jimmy Skunk at all.
 
“Matter enuff, Suh! Matter enuff!” said Unc' Billy Possum, when he could get his breath. “Do you hear that noise?”
 
“Sure, I hear that noise. That's only Bowser the Hound chasing old Granny Fox. When she gets tired she'll lose him,” replied Jimmy Skunk. “What are you worrying about Bowser the Hound for?”
 
“Bowser the Hound will have to be smarter than he is now befo' he can worry me, Ah reckon,” said Unc' Billy Possum scornfully. “It isn't Bowser the Hound; it's Farmer Brown's boy and his gun!” Then Unc' Billy told Jimmy Skunk how he had been hiding in the woodpile at Farmer Brown's and had heard Farmer Brown's boy say that he was going to hunt over the Green Meadows and through the Green Forest until he got Reddy Fox.
 
“What of it?” asked Jimmy Skunk. “If he gets Reddy Fox, so much the better. Reddy always did make trouble for other people. I don't see what you're worrying about Reddy Fox for. He's big enough to take care of himself.”
 
“Yo' cert'nly are plumb slow in your wits this morning, Jimmy Skunk, yo' cert'nly are plumb slow! Supposing yo' should meet up with Farmer Brown's boy with that gun in his hands and supposing he had grown tired of watching fo' Reddy Fox. That gun might go off, Jimmy Skunk; it might go off when it was pointing right straight at yo'!” s............