Once in a while the gray old Chuck would turn his head and show his teeth , but he kept right on towards the Old Pasture . Johnny Chuck smiled . It had been a great fight , and more than once Johnny Chuck had thought that he should have to give up . He thought of this now , and then he thought with shame of how he had bragged and boasted just before the fight . What if he had lost ? He resolved that he would never again brag or boast . But he also made up his mind that if any one should pick a quarrel with him , he would show that he was n't afraid . It was getting late in the afternoon when Johnny finally felt rested enough to go on . He had got to find a place to spend the night . He hobbled along , for he was very stiff and sore , until he came to the edge of the Green Meadows , where they meet the Green Forest . Jolly , round , red Mr. Sun was almost ready to go down to his bed behind the Purple Hills . Shadows were already beginning to creep through the Green Forest . Somehow they gave Johnny Chuck that same lonesome feeling that he had had when he first left his old home . You see he had always lived out in the Green Meadows and somehow he was afraid of the Green Forest in the night . So , instead of going into the Green Forest , he wandered along the edge of it , looking for a place in which to spend the night . At last he came to a hollow log lying just out on the edge of the Green Meadows . Very carefully Johnny Chuck examined it , to be sure that no one else was using it . `` It 's just the place I 'm looking for ! '' he said aloud . Just then there was a sharp hiss , a very fierce hiss .
Johnny Chuck felt the hair on his neck rise as it always did when he heard XXXXX hiss , and he was n't at all surprised , when he turned his head , to find Mr. Blacksnake close by .
At behind for in of on than that to while