him feel quite uneasy. It was almost noon on a hot summer's day; and Jasper was resting amid the shade of a big beech tree on the edge of the woods, where he could look across the meadow and watch Farmer Green and his boy Johnnie and the hired-man at work in the hayfield. Jasper was just thinking how much pleasanter was his own carefree life thanp. 14 theirs when a long, loud call blared across the meadow. He had never heard that cry before; and he raised himself on tiptoe, listening intently as the sound echoed back and forth across the valley.

Though Jasper stayed quite still for some time, waiting to hear the cry again, it was not repeated.

"I'd like to know what sort of bird that was!" he said to himself at last. "If he stays in this neighborhood I'll have to drive him away, for his voice is certainly louder than mine. And I wouldn't let him come here and insult me like that."

All the afternoon Jasper Jay flew up and down the length of Pleasant Valley and back and forth across it, hunting for the strange bird with the loud voice. But he met no newcomer at all.

Jasper had almost decided that the stranger had merely been passing throughp. 15 the valley. He certainly hoped that such was the case, because he had no way of telling how big the unknown might be. If he were as large as his voice, driving him away might prove no joke for Jasper.

By nightfall Jasper began to feel less anxious. To be sure, he dreamed that he met an enormous bird on the top of Blue Mountain, who chased him all the way around the world. And when he awoke just before daybreak he was still frightened, until he remembered that it was only a dream.

"It must have been that fuzzy caterpillar that I ate just before I went to bed," he thought.

Jasper was himself again all the morning. He had a good deal of fun teasing a kitten which had lost itself behind Farmer Green's barn. And he drove Jolly Robin's wife almost frantic by hiding in thep. 16 orchard and whistling like a hawk. And then, at midday, his fun was spoiled. That strange scream smote his ears once more. And Jasper trembled both with rage and fear.

He knew then that the stranger was still in the valley.

p. 17

IV

JASPER'S BOAST

Jasper Jay had said nothing to anyone concerning the horrid call, which had sounded twice—each time at midday. But now that he felt sure the strange bird whose cry he had heard must have come to live in Pleasant Valley, he could no longer keep from mentioning the matter.

Chancing to meet his cousin, Mr. Crow, the next morning, Jasper stopped to talk with the old gentleman. You see, Mr. Crow was widely known as a gossip. He usually knew what was going on in the neighborhood. So Jasper thought it likely that Mr. Crow could tell him all about thep. 18 unwelcome stranger. "Perhaps," he thought, "the old scamp has already seen him."

Of course, Jasper never termed his cousin a scamp to his face. He always spoke to him very politely, greeting him as "Mr. Crow," in spite of their close relationship. And there was a reason why Jasper did that. Mr. Crow had once given him a severe beating because Jasper had called him something else. And Jasper Jay never forgot it.

Now Jasper first inquired after his cousin's health. He did that to put old Mr. Crow in a good humor. But Jasper was sorry at once that he had started Mr. Crow to talking about his ills. It happened that the old gentleman was then suffering from gout, hay-fever and housemaid's knee. And he liked to talk about his ailments. Living all alone as he did,p. 19 he had nobody to do his housework. And that, he complained, was the reason why his knee troubled him.

Jasper Jay fidgeted about while Mr. Crow was telling him all that—and much more—concerning his troubles. Jasper really did not care to hear about them.

"Yes! yes!" he exclaimed impatiently, for it seemed to him that old Mr. Crow never would stop talking about himself. "Now that we're having a good spell of weather you ought to begin to feel better. And what's the news, Mr. Crow? Have you heard of anything happening around here lately?"

The old gentleman shook his head.

"Things are quiet," he said.

"Nobody left Pleasant Valley recently?" Jasper inquired.

"Not that I've heard of," replied Mr. Crow.

p. 20

"No strangers come here to live?" Jasper asked him.

"No one at all!" said Mr. Crow.

"That's queer!" Jasper exclaimed. "I was sure I heard a new voice yesterday. And I heard it again to-day, too—at exactly the same time."

"What did it sound like?" Mr. Crow wanted to know.

So Jasper gave an imitation of the odd cry that had swept the valley.

"It was quite loud and very unpleasant to hear," he remarked. "And whoever the stranger may be, if he's going to disturb me every noon like that when I'm having my midday rest I shall have to drive him out of the neighborhood."

"It's almost noon now," said old Mr. Crow, cocking his eye at the sun. "Perhaps we'll hear the cry soon."

The words were scarcely out of his billp. 21 when a far-reaching call caught the attention of the two cousins. It brought Jasper Jay to his tiptoes at once. And he craned his neck in an effort to catch a glimpse of the stranger who possessed such a powerful voice.

"There it is!" Jasper cried. "There's the call again! Do you know what kind of bird makes that cry?"

Something seemed to have stuck in Mr. Crow's throat. At least, he spluttered and choked and coughed. And he was quite unable to answer just then. But after the mountains had quit tossing the sound back and forth and all was quiet again he said:

"No small bird could make a sound like that. And if you can drive him out of Pleasant Valley you're a better fighter than I ever supposed."

Mr. Crow might have known that hisp. 22 remark would not please Jasper Jay. Jasper gave his cousin an angry glance; and he looked as if he would have liked to fight him. But he had suffered one beating by his elderly cousin. And he didn't care for another. So he only sneered openly. And then he screamed in a loud voice:

"I'll find that noisy fellow and drive him out of Pleasant Valley, if it takes me all summer to do it!" And he raised his crest, and snapped his beak together, and stamped his feet, so that he looked very fierce indeed.

But old Mr. Crow was not frightened in the least. He only smiled.

"Let me know when you've driven the stranger away," he said.

"Oh! you'll hear about it," Jasper Jay assured him. "It will be the most famous fight that will ever take place in this valley," he boasted. And then the two cousp. 23ins parted. It did not put Jasper Jay in any better humor to hear Mr. Crow's hoarse haw-haw echoing across the valley. Of course, Jasper did not know what he was laughing at. But that only served to make the blue-coated scamp all the more peevish.

p. 24

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