"If you are not sure, why don't you ask Farmer Green himself?" Daddy Longlegs inquired.
"I will!" cried Mr. Crow in a loud voice. "I'll ask him the next time I see him."
"Then you can ask him now," said Daddy Longlegs, "for here he comes, with a gun on his shoulder."
The words were hardly out of Daddy's mouth when old Mr. Crow began to beat the air furiously with his broad wings. He rose quickly—but not too high—and made for the woods as fast as he could fly.
"Now, that's strange!" Daddy Long[p. 25]legs quavered. "I don't see how he's going to talk with Farmer Green when he's half a mile away from him."
And everybody else said the same thing.
"He's gone off and left the contest unfinished," little Mr. Chippy observed. "So there's nothing Jasper Jay can do except to declare that Daddy Longlegs is the winner—and the wisest person in Pleasant Valley."
"I couldn't very well do that," Jasper objected. "You're forgetting Solomon Owl."
"Well, Daddy's wiser than old Mr. Crow, anyhow," Mr. Chippy retorted. And since almost everybody said that was true, Jasper Jay didn't quite dare object.
But it was plain that he didn't agree with the company. And he stamped his feet and clashed his bill together and[p. 26] shook his head as if he were much displeased.