came down to him from the branch of an alder just over his head. Peter
looked up. There sat Sticky-toes himself, but his voice was coming from an
alder on the other side of the Laughing Brook.

"Do you hear that? Do you hear that? There's my voice over there, and here
I am here! What do you make of it?" whispered Sticky-toes.

Peter didn't know what to make of it. All he could do was to gaze at
Sticky-toes as if he thought Sticky-toes was a ghost. Just then the voice
of Sammy Jay, or what sounded for all the world like Sammy's voice,
screamed "Thief! thief! thief!" from the very spot where they had just
heard the voice of Sticky-toes.

Peter turned to ask Unc' Billy Possum what he thought, but Unc' Billy
wasn't there.




XVI


UNC' BILLY POSSUM DOES A LITTLE SURPRISING HIMSELF

When Unc' Billy Possum first heard what sounded like the voice of
Sticky-toes the Tree Toad, he had thought, just as Peter Rabbit did, that
Sticky-toes was over in an alder tree on the other side of the Laughing
Brook. But when he heard a whisper right over their heads and looked up to
see Sticky-toes himself, Unc' Billy almost chuckled out loud.