So Jasper Jay went and stood in the puddle. He screamed a good deal as he stepped into the cold water.
"This is terrible!" he groaned. "Do hurry with your scheme, or I shall have a chill."
"Remember! You're to keep absolutely[p. 101] still!" Jimmy Rabbit warned him. "You mustn't move and you mustn't talk. If you should, my plan would be spoiled; and then you would have to fight Reddy Woodpecker after all."
"I pr-pr-promise!" said Jasper Jay. His bill was chattering so fast that he could hardly talk. And he was so cold that he looked uncommonly blue—even for a blue jay.
So Jimmy Rabbit hopped away, feeling quite pleased with himself and his plan. If Jasper Jay could have seen him stop, as soon as he was out of sight, and roll over and over upon the ground and hold his shaking sides he might have wondered what Jimmy was laughing at. Certainly Jasper Jay could see no joke in standing still in a cold puddle on a frosty fall day.
Well, after a time Jimmy Rabbit stopped rolling upon the ground and hurried[p. 102] straight to the place where the beeches grew. And there—as he had hoped to—he found Reddy Woodpecker, busily eating beechnuts.
"How are the nuts this fall?" Jimmy Rabbit asked.
"They couldn't be better!" said Reddy, stuffing his mouth as he spoke.
"They say there's a big crop this year," Jimmy Rabbit observed.
"Yes!" replied Reddy. "But it's none too big. In fact, there are too many people in this neighborhood that come here for nuts. I hope," he said, "that's not what you're looking for."