"He can't be very big, or I'd have found him before this," he rea.s.sured himself.

Though he hunted far and wide, looking in hollow trees and in the tops of the tallest timber, as well as inside the densest thickets, Jasper could still find no trace of his enemy--for so he regarded the unknown bird.

For several days he continued his unsuccessful search. And though that same strange cry enraged him each noon, he was quite at a loss to know where to look for its author. He asked a good many of the feathered folk if they had seen a stranger anywhere. But not one of them admitted that he had.... Jasper Jay thought it very odd.

Meanwhile, he took special pains to dodge his cousin, old Mr. Crow, whenever he caught sight of him; for he remembered Mr. Crow's disagreeable remark. But the day finally came when Jasper met him face to face in the woods. And Mr. Crow called to him loudly to wait a moment.

"I want to ask you," said the old gentleman, "whether you've found and driven away that stranger yet?" The old rogue's voice cracked as he spoke and he rocked back and forth as if he were much amused by something.

"I haven't set eyes on him yet," Jasper replied somewhat coldly. "But I've heard him every noon. And I expect to find him pretty soon."

"Have you looked for him around the farmhouse?" Mr. Crow inquired.

"Why, no!" said Jasper. "I hadn't thought of his being there."

"Then," said old Mr. Crow, "I'd go over there at once, if I were you.

And I'd stay right there until noon. You won't have to wait more than three or four hours. And unless I'm much mistaken you'll find your search at an end...."

"I hope--" he added--"I hope you won't get hurt when you fight the stranger."

Now, it struck Jasper Jay that old Mr. Crow knew more about the strange bird with the loud voice than he was willing to tell. Anyhow, Mr. Crow looked very wise. And he croaked and smiled in a way that was most annoying. What he said about Jasper's not getting hurt made Jasper feel quite uneasy, too.

"Won't you come with me?" he asked Mr. Crow very politely. To tell the truth, Jasper was worried. Now that he was about to meet the strange bird he began to be frightened. He did not like the thought of facing him alone.

"I can't come now," said Mr. Crow, "because I'm going to be busy. But I'll join you on the barnyard fence a little before midday. Maybe I'll bring a friend or two along with me."

"Good!" cried Jasper Jay. "That will be fine."

So they said good-by. And Mr. Crow hurried off into the woods, for--as he said--he was going to be busy.

VI

A JOKE ON JASPER JAY

WITH a loud squall of glee, Jasper Jay made off in the direction of the farm buildings. Now that he was going to have company, later, he felt much better. And he resolved to keep well hidden in the top of the great oak near Farmer Green's house, until the time came for Mr. Crow to arrive--and his friends, too, if he brought them.

Jasper waited in the big oak for a long time. He saw no strange bird.

And he was glad--because he did not want to meet him until Mr. Crow came.

For once in his life Jasper kept quite still. He could see a kitten playing in the dooryard; and he would have liked to tease it. And there were the hens, too. Jasper smiled as he thought of the way they would scurry for shelter if he should cry out like a hawk. But he made no noise, for he was afraid the strange bird might be lurking about somewhere, ready to pounce upon him before Jasper knew what was happening.

At last Jasper left his hiding place and flew beyond the barn, where he alighted on the fence, to meet Mr. Crow. And very promptly the old gentleman arrived. He brought ten of his relations with him, too--all noisy and unmannerly fellows. They were not the least bit timid, because they knew that Farmer Green and his son Johnnie and the hired-man were working in the hayfield, beyond the pasture.

"Here we are!" cried Mr. Crow. "We've come to see you whip the person with the loud voice and drive him out of the valley." And all ten of his relations joined Mr. Crow in a loud, cackling laugh.

"What's the joke?" asked Jasper Jay.

"Oh, there's no joke at all--yet," said Mr. Crow. And he and his companions all laughed again. "Come around to the other side of the barn," Mr. Crow continued. "It's time for the stranger to screech, for it'll be noon before you know it."

So they all moved to another part of the fence, from which they could see the farmhouse. And no sooner had they settled themselves comfortably than Farmer Green's wife came to the doorway and held a horn to her lips.

Then came the loud blast that Jasper knew so well. He was so startled that he almost fell off the fence. But he was not frightened.

He was very angry, however. For Mr. Crow and his friends began to jeer at him.

"Fly at her!" cried Mr. Crow. "She's the bird that you're going to drive out of Pleasant Valley. And we all want to see you do it."

It was very uncomfortable for Jasper Jay. He had mistaken the sound of the dinner-horn for the call of a strange bird. And he felt uncommonly foolish.

Since he dared not attack Mr. Crow, especially when his ten relations were with him, there was nothing Jasper could do except give a loud, helpless scream of rage and hurry away toward the woods.

"See those crows chasing that blue jay!" Farmer Green said to Johnnie, as they walked toward home. "Probably he's played some trick on them."

But for once it was not Jasper who was guilty. It was old Mr. Crow himself who had played the trick. He had known from the first that Mrs.

Green had bought a new dinner-horn, because the men were always late for dinner. Though how he discovered that fact is a mystery.

Somehow, old Mr. Crow knew about everything that happened in Pleasant Valley. And now Jasper Jay had learned something more, too.

VII

SCARING THE HENS

THERE was one sport of which Jasper Jay was over-fond. He loved to imitate the calls of other birds; and Jasper was such a good mimic that he often deceived his neighbors by his tricks.

It was not pleasant for a sober, elderly bird-gentleman to come home at night from a hard day's work and have his wife accuse him of idling away his time.

"You can't deny it--for I could hear you laughing in the woods!" she might say.

And it was not always an easy task to convince her that what she had heard was n.o.body but that noisy rascal, Jasper Jay, playing a trick on her.

Nor did Jasper limit his droll teasing to his own neighbors. Sometimes he hid in a tree near the farm buildings and frightened the hens by making a sound exactly like a certain red-shouldered hawk, who lived in the low woods along Black Creek, where frogs were plentiful. A fierce scream of "_Kee-you! kee-you!_" was quite enough to alarm an old hen with a big family of young chickens. Though she might know well enough that the red-shouldered hawk seldom made a meal of poultry, preferring frogs and field-mice above all other food, it was only natural that she shouldn't care to take any chances. The haste with which a nervous mother-hen called her family into the chicken house when she heard that cry of "_Kee-you! kee-you!_" always amused Jasper Jay, for he never tired of the game.

Surprising as it may seem, now and then Jasper's hawk-call deceived even Farmer Green himself. And sometimes he would step into the kitchen and take his old gun off the hooks on the wall above the wide fireplace and hurry outside again in the hope of getting a shot at Mr. Hawk. It happened at last that in some way Mr. Red-shouldered Hawk heard of this trick of Jasper's. And that old gossip, Mr. Crow, warned Jasper Jay that he had better be careful.

"Mr. Hawk says that you are giving him a bad name with Farmer Green,"

Mr. Crow told Jasper one day. "Farmer Green calls him 'that old hen-hawk,' and, of course, it's not very pleasant for Mr. Hawk to have somebody looking for him with a gun. I know what the feeling is like, myself," said old Mr. Crow. "Believe me, it's enough to make one most uncomfortable!"

But Jasper Jay only shrieked with laughter.

"You'll sing a different song if Mr. Hawk catches you," Mr. Crow snapped.