But for once it was not Jasper who was guilty. It was old Mr. Crow himself who[p. 33] had played the trick. He had known from the first that Mrs. Green had bought a new dinner-horn, because the men were always late for dinner. Though how he discovered that fact is a mystery.
Somehow, old Mr. Crow knew about everything that happened in Pleasant Valley. And now Jasper Jay had learned something more, too.
VII
SCARING THE HENS
There was one sport of which Jasper Jay was over-fond. He loved to imitate the calls of other birds; and Jasper was such a good mimic that he often deceived his neighbors by his tricks.
It was not pleasant for a sober, elderly bird-gentleman to come home at night from a hard day's work and have his wife accuse him of idling away his time.
"You can't deny it—for I could hear you laughing in the woods!" she might say.
And it was not always an easy task to convince her that what she had heard was[p. 35] nobody but that noisy rascal, Jasper Jay, playing a trick on her.