After leaving the Muley Cow, who was wearing her new down by the lane, Aunt Polly Woodchuck and Billy Woodchuck's mother met old Mr. Crow again.  
"Did you see her?" he asked them .
 
"Yes!" they answered.
 
Mr. Crow gave them a sly leer. "What do you think of it?" he inquired.
 
They said that the poke was the strangest collar they had ever set eyes on.
 
"Ha! ha!" the old black laughed. "I see that you don't know what it's for.... It's to keep the Muley Cow from jumping the fence into the back pasture. Farmer Green put it around her neck this morning."
 
"Did you ever?" said Billy Woodchuck's mother.
 
"Well, I never!" said Aunt Polly.
 
"We expected to see a poke bonnet," they both told Mr. Crow.
 
That made him laugh again hoarsely.
 
"She wants to see you. The Muley Cow wants to talk with you," Aunt Polly Woodchuck informed him.
 
"Is she feeling pleasant?" he asked.
 
"No, I shouldn't say she was," Aunt Polly replied.
 
"Then I'll fly over and call on her a little later," he . "But first I must finish my breakfast." Thereupon he rose into the air and sailed away toward the cornfield, leaving two very puzzled Woodchuck ladies behind him.
 
 
If there was anything that Mr. Crow enjoyed more than another, it was teasing some person that was angry. So he kept his word. As soon as he had finished his breakfast he came back to the pasture and sought out the Muley Cow.
 
"Good morning!"............