"This is luck! Aren't you all glad I found him?"
Now, of course, Jake had not found Solomon Owl. If it hadn't been for Jasper Jay no one would have known he was there. And Jasper was just about to remind Jake of his mistake when he happened to think of something that made him change his mind. It occurred to Jasper that if Noisy Jake wanted to think he was still the leader of the party perhaps it was just as well to let him. Jake always talked so much, in such a loud tone, that Solomon Owl would be sure to know him.
And Jasper thought he could have plenty of fun himself, teasing Solomon[p. 60] and not saying a word. Then—so Jasper believed—then Solomon Owl wouldn't know that Jasper was in the party at all.
You see, Johnnie Green was not the only person who held that Solomon Owl couldn't see in the daytime. Everybody knew that his big, round eyes were keen enough in the dark. But in the daylight he usually sat quite still in a tree and stared as if he saw nothing at all.
Well, that was just what Solomon Owl was doing then. He said never a word. And he scarcely moved, except to turn his head helplessly now and then, and blink, while his tormentors flew as close to him as they dared and hooted loudly at him.
Jasper and his friends made enough noise to scare even a bigger bird than Solomon Owl. And they said a good many rude things to him, too.
"How are Farmer Green's chickens[p. 61] this fall?" Noisy Jake asked him in a loud voice, while Jasper Jay quietly amused himself by dropping hemlock seeds upon Solomon's head.
Still Solomon Owl made no remarks at all. But he was thinking deeply. And though some people claimed that he was not nearly so wise as he looked, there were some things that he knew just as well as anyone else.
But Jasper Jay was not aware of that.