pped, panting, and slipped down to the ground to
have a drink out of the brook, old Mr. Crow promptly joined him.

"Aha!" said Mr. Crow. "_You_ were scared. _You_ ran away!"

The Major wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and looked at Mr.
Crow uneasily.

"I _came_ away--yes!" he said.

Mr. Crow snorted.

"A fine soldier you are!" he cried scornfully. "You aren't brave
enough to lead an army. I should think you'd be ashamed."

Major Monkey seemed pained. He said it hurt him to have Mr. Crow say
such cruel things.

"It's plain," said he, "that you don't know much about an army, in
spite of all I've tried to teach you. Of course I had to leave. I'm
the leader of the army; and I must keep out of danger. So when the
generals failed to come to my rescue when I whistled for help there
was nothing I could do except retreat."

For a long time Mr. Crow was silent.

"You were scared, anyway," he remarked at last.

"I wasn't!" the Major protested.

"You were!" said Mr. Crow. "You were! You were! You were!"

Of course he was very ill-mannered. But Major Monkey was too polite to
tell him so. Instead, he picked up a smooth stone out of the brook and
threw it at Mr. Crow's head.

The old gentleman hopped aside just in time. And without waiting to
dispute any further, he tore off as fast as he could go.

"Now who's scared?" Major Monkey called after him.

But old Mr. Crow did not stop to answer.

XVI

The Major's Trouble

After Major Monkey fled from Johnnie Green and his friends in the
picnic grove, his generals declared that they wanted no leader that
ran away from the enemy. And since they couldn't agree on anyone else
to take the Major's place, they disbanded.

So Major Monkey lost his army. But the loss did not seem to trouble
him greatly. He was almost too cheerful. And his neighbors even
claimed that his spirits rose higher each day.

There is no doubt that the Major felt very gay. He was fast losing the
lean and hungry look he had had when he first appeared in Pleasant
Valley. And he became freer than ever as to manners.

Nobody else could go about the woods with any comfort, because one
never knew when he would have to dodge a stone. For Major Monkey liked
nothing better than making a body jump--unless it was bowling someone
over when he failed to jump soon enough.

In time the forest-folk grew quite weary of that sport. And they began
to tell one another that something would have to be