o. I see that I'm going to have trouble making
him understand what I say."

Frisky Squirrel merely grinned at his companion.

"Look here, young Porker!" Jasper called to Grunty Pig. "Doesn't Farmer
Green feed you?"

The name "Porker" made Grunty Pig look up.

"I'm Mrs. Pig's son," he said. "Don't call me 'Porker'!"

"Well--Pig, then!" Jasper Jay squalled. "Doesn't Farmer Green feed you?"

"Yes!"

"Well, then--don't come here and take our nuts! Didn't your mother ever
teach you that things that grow on trees--such things as nuts--belong to
the people that live in the trees?"

"Does Johnnie Green live in this tree?" Grunty Pig inquired.

"He spends half his time here--or a quarter, anyhow," Jasper Jay
grumbled. "And you may be sure he gets his share of these beechnuts.
Goodness knows he leaves few enough for me and my friend here.

"Now," Jasper Jay went on, "I want you to promise not to eat any more of
our nuts."

Grunty Pig shook his head.

"I can't promise that, exactly," he said. "But I'll promise not to eat
any that I don't find on the ground."

"Huh!" Jasper Jay scoffed. "That means that you won't eat any nuts that
you can't reach. That's no promise at all. It's nothing but a threat.
It's the same as saying that you're going to eat every nut that drops
off this tree."

Grunty Pig made no reply. He would have wandered on, but for a fresh
breeze that had begun to whip the branches of the beech tree. He decided
to wait there. More burs might fall. And Grunty wanted to be on hand to
meet them when they dropped.

"Go home!" Jasper Jay shrieked at him. "Go back to your pigpen where you
belong. We don't want you here." And he said many more things that were
still ruder.

But Grunty Pig never showed the least sign of anger. He didn't even let
Jasper Jay know that he had heard. When the wind died down he waddled
off down the road. And Frisky Squirrel followed him through the tree
tops. When they had travelled out of Jasper Jay's sight and hearing,
Frisky asked Grunty Pig a question.

"I should like to know," he said, "how you managed to keep still when
Jasper was abusing you. I know that I should have lost my temper. Can it
be that you didn't hear what he said?"

"Oh, I heard him clearly enough," said Grunty. "But there was no sense
in my getting angry with _him_. If he had been standing on the ground
near me he would never have dared talk to me as he did. Jasper Jay
called me names because he was saf