Then out popped Jenny Wren, and she was so mad that she couldn’t sit still a second.  My, my, my, how she did scold!

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Sammy Jay!  You ought to be ashamed of yourself!” she sputtered.  “Isn’t it enough to keep us awake half the night without coming down and screaming all day?”

“I haven’t been down here in the night, and I haven’t kept anybody awake!” replied Sammy Jay indignantly.

Jenny Wren came right up in front of Sammy Jay and hopped up and down.  She was so mad that with every word she jerked her funny little tail so that Sammy Jay almost had to laugh.

“Don’t tell that to me, Sammy Jay!  Don’t tell that to me!” she cried.  “Didn’t I see you with my own eyes sitting in that alder over there?  Don’t tell that to me!  You ought to be ashamed of yourself!”

X

SAMMY JAY SEEKS ADVICE

Sammy Jay had a headache, such a headache!  He had thought and thought and thought, until now it seemed to him that the world surely had turned topsy-turvy.  His poor little head was all in a whirl, and that was what made it ache.  First he had been accused of screaming in the night to waken and scare the little meadow and forest people who wanted to sleep.  Then he had kept awake all night to find out what it meant, and he had heard what sounded like his own voice screaming “Thief! thief! thief!” down by the Laughing Brook, when all the time he was sitting in the dark in his own big pine-tree in the Green Forest.

That was bad enough, but to have Jenny Wren tell him that she had seen him with her own eyes sitting in an alder tree and screaming, at the very time that he had been back there in the big pine-tree, was more than Sammy Jay could stand.  It was no wonder that his head ached.  Hardly any of the little meadow and forest people would speak to him now.  They just turned their backs to him whenever he met them.  He didn’t mind this so much, because he knew that none of them had ever liked him very well.  You see he had played too many mean tricks for any one to really like him.  But he did hate to have them blame him for something that he hadn’t done.

“It’s too much for me!” said Sammy Jay.  “It’s too much for me!  I’ve thought and thought, until my brain just goes round and round and makes me dizzy, and my thoughts turn somersaults over each other.  I must get help somewhere.  Now, who can I go to, so few will have anything to do with me?”

“Caw, caw, caw!”

Sammy Jay pricked up his ears and spread his wings.  “My cousin, Blacky the Crow!” he cried.  “Why didn’t I think of him before?  He’s very smart, is Blacky the Crow, and perhaps he can tell me what to do.”

So Sammy Jay hurried as fast as he could to lay his troubles before Blacky the Crow.  Blacky’s eyes twinkled as he listened to Sammy Jay’s tale of woe.  When Sammy had finished and had asked for Blacky’s advice, Blacky went into a black study.  Sammy sat and waited patiently, for he felt certain that Blacky’s shrewd head would find some plan to solve the mystery.