CHAPTER 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.