esn't do any good for me to sit here and scold about
the Professor; he'll keep on at his murderous business just as long as
there are animals in the big woods for him to eat, so I'll get on with
the story I was trying to tell when he stuck his beak in where it
didn't belong. Just keep your eye out for the old fellow, for it
wouldn't bother him a bit to pick me off this log with you sitting
close by, and call it a good joke.

"Let me see--I'd come to where the club meeting was broken up by the
Professor, and I'd gone into a thorn bush head first. Well, you can
set it down as a fact that I wasn't in any hurry about coming out from
cover till the word had been given that he had gone, and even then I
took good care to have a sharp look around before showing even so much
as the end of my nose. I was the last one out, and when I hopped
through the bushes Jimmy Hedgehog set up a great shout about my being
the biggest coward of the crowd. What was the use of answering him
back? It wasn't because of being so terribly brave that he stayed out
in the open while all the other members of the club were hunting for
cover; but he knew that so long as he was rolled into a ball, with his
quills sticking out in every direction, the Professor wouldn't dare to
meddle with him.

"I'm thinking one reason why he made so much noise about my being a
coward was that he hoped to make the others forget they had met to
overhaul him for egging poor Bobby on to his death. If that was the
scheme in his mind, it didn't work, for in less than half a minute
after I showed myself, Mr. Crow got right down to business, and it
wasn't so very long before all hands knew the story as well as I did.
Mr. Blue Jay perched himself on the very top of the oak tree, where
he could sound the alarm in case the Professor showed himself again,
and Cheeko's oldest child was stationed in a bush at the edge of the
clearing to give warning if Butcher Weasel came sneaking along, so we
weren't afraid of being taken by surprise.

"Some of the animals say that Mr. Crow doesn't know as much as he
tries to make out; but he was sharp enough to get in all the facts
concerning the murder of poor Bobby, and when the matter was ended
every member of the club knew just who was to blame for what had
happened over on the farm. More than once while I was answering the
question the president asked, Jimmy wrinkled up his nose at me, as
much as to say that he would serve me out for telling t