be
handsome;" and the jay surveyed his own bright feathers with pride.

"You stupids!" said Bevis, "what is the use of talking in that way? I
want to know the secret."

"There is no secret," said the jay; "and I am not stupid. How can there
be a secret, when everybody knows it?"

"Hush! hush!" said the hare, trying to make peace; "do not let us
quarrel, at all events, if all the rest do."

"No," said the squirrel; "certainly not."

"Certainly not," repeated the jay.

"Well, what is it, then?" said Bevis, still frowning.

"The fact is," said the squirrel, "Tchack-tchack has babbled out the
great state secret. I myself knew a little of it previously, having
overheard the crow muttering to himself--as Ulu said, he peers into
things that do not concern him. And, if you remember, Bevis, I was in a
great fright one day when I nearly let it out myself. Now Prince
Tchack-tchack, finding that he could not get the crown, has babbled
everything in his rage, and the beautiful jay has told us many things
that prove it to be true. It now turns out that Kapchack was not
Kapchack at all."

"Not Kapchack!" said Bevis. "How could Kapchack not be Kapchack, when he
was Kapchack?"

"Kapchack could not be Kapchack," said the squirrel, "because he never
was Kapchack."

"Then who was Kapchack?" said Bevis, in amazement.

"Well, he was not who he was," said the squirrel; "and I will tell you
why it was that he was not, if you will listen, and not keep
interrupting, and asking questions. The reed once told you how stupid it
is to ask questions; you would understand everything very well, if you
did not trouble to make inquiries. The king who is just dead, and who
was called Kapchack, was not Kapchack, because the real old original
Kapchack died forty years ago."

"What?" said Bevis.

"Extraordinary!" said the jay.

"Extraordinary!" said the hare.

"But true," said the squirrel. "The real old original Kapchack, the
cleverest, cunningest, most consummate schemer who ever lived, who built
the palace in the orchard, and who played such fantastic freaks before
the loving couple, who won their hearts, and stole their locket and
separated them for ever (thinking that would serve his purpose best,
since if they married they would forget him, and have other things to
think about, while if they were apart he should be regarded as a sacred
souvenir), this marvellous genius, the founder of so illustrious a
family, whose dominion stretch