The Tale of Jasper Jay

d not know what he was laughing at. But that only served to make the blue-coated scamp all the more peevish.

V

THE SEARCH

AFTER telling Mr. Crow what he was going to do to the strange bird, which he had never seen, but only heard, Jasper Jay renewed his search for the unknown.

There was not the slightest doubt in his mind that the stranger could out-scream him. And he knew he could never be happy so long as such a loud-voiced rival remained in the neighborhood.

Jasper hoped, at least, that the newcomer was not too large.

"He can't be very big, or I'd have found him before this," he reassured 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