But he made his rush in vain. Missing Jasper Jay by a few inches, he crashed head foremost into a tree before he could stop. And the pain in the top of his head made him hoot at the top of his voice. Perhaps he was angry, too.
Anyhow, to Jasper Jay the horrid cry sounded as if it were just behind him. He never knew before that he could fly so fast. And some of his friends, who saw a blue streak in the twilight, did not even recognize him.
For several days afterward, Noisy Jake, whom Jasper passed in his headlong flight, talked about the blue lightning he had seen when he was going home from the nutting party. And since nobody could prove that he was mistaken, no one was so foolish as to dispute him.
And that was the way that Jasper Jay learned something about Solomon Owl's eyes—and something about manners, too.
XIII
TEASING A SINGER
Though there were many feathered folk in Pleasant Valley, Jasper Jay did not care to have much to do with any except his own family. Unless he had other business that was more urgent he was always ready to join a troop of noisy blue jays bent on some mischief. But if there were none of his own kind about, Jasper usually preferred to be alone.