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.

And that made Jasper Jay scream all the louder. Then he stopped laughing
and said "_Caw! caw!_" in a husky voice so like Mr. Crow's own that the
old gentleman spluttered and fumed and all but chased Jasper out of the
woods where they were sitting at the time.

They never did get along well together--old Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay.
They were cousins, you know. But that fact did not help matters at all.
Perhaps they knew too much about each other.

"Don't worry about me!" said Jasper Jay at last.

"Very well!" Mr. Crow replied stiffly. "But remember--I've warned you!"
he croaked. And then he flew away to his nest in a tall elm, overlooking
the cornfield.

VIII

A BIT OF MISCHIEF

JASPER JAY did not heed Mr. Crow's warning. When he learned that Mr.
Red-shouldered Hawk was angry with him because he had imitated Mr.
Hawk's fierce cry, "_Kee-you! kee-you!_" Jasper was more pleased with
himself than ever. Scaring Farmer Green's hens with that piercing scream
had been a good deal of fun. But making Mr. Hawk angry was still more.

So Jasper Jay began to visit the farmyard even oftener than before. If
the mother-hens, with their chicks, did not happen to be scratching in
the barnyard, there was always sport of some sort to be had.

One day when Jasper was on his way to Farmer Green's place, he