tree to tree, watching patiently, for hours
it need be, until he knows that Deedeeaskh is gathering corn from a
certain field. Then he watches the line of flight, like a bee hunter,
and sees Deedeeaskh disappear twice by an oak on the wood's edge, a
hundred yards away. Meeko rushes away at a headlong pace and hides
himself in the oak. There he traces the jay's line of flight a little
farther into the woods; sees the unconscious thief disappear by an old
pine. Meeko hides in the pine, and so traces the jay straight to one of
his storehouses.

Sometimes Meeko is so elated over the discovery that, with all the
fields laden with food, he cannot wait for winter. When the jay goes
away Meeko falls to eating or to carrying away his store. More often he
marks the spot and goes away silently. When he is hungry he will carry
off Deedeeaskh's corn before touching his own.

Once I saw the tables turned in a most interesting fashion. Deedeeaskh
is as big a thief in his way as is Meeko, and also as vile a
nest-robber. The red squirrel had found a hoard of chestnuts--small
fruit, but sweet and good--and was hiding it away. Part of it he stored
in a hollow under the stub of a broken branch, twenty feet from the
ground, so near the source of supply that no one would ever think of
looking for it there. I was hidden away in a thicket when I discovered
him at his work quite by accident. He seldom came twice to the same
spot, but went off to his other storehouses in succession. After an
unusually long absence, when I was expecting him every moment, a blue
jay came stealing into the tree, spying and sneaking about, as if a
nest of fresh thrush's eggs were somewhere near. He smelled a mouse
evidently, for after a moment's spying he hid himself away in the tree
top, close up against the trunk. Presently Meeko came back, with his
face bulging as if he had toothache, uncovered his store, emptied in
the half dozen chestnuts from his cheek pockets and covered them all up
again.

The moment he was gone the blue jay went straight to the spot, seized a
mouthful of nuts and flew swiftly away. He made three trips before
the squirrel came back. Meeko in his hurry never noticed the loss, but
emptied his pockets and was off to the chestnut tree again. When he
returned, the jay in his eagerness had disturbed the leaves which
covered the hidden store. Meeko noticed it and was all suspicion in an
instant. He whipped off the covering and stood staring dow