Whether that was the case, Jolly Robin never learned. For he never saw his cousin the Hermit again.
XVI
JEALOUS JASPER JAY
The feathered folk in Pleasant Valley were all aflutter. They had heard a strange tale—the oddest tale, almost, that had ever been told in their neighborhood.
It was Jolly Robin who had started the story. And since he was not in the habit of playing jokes on people, everybody believed what he said—at least, everybody except Jasper Jay. He declared from the first that Jolly Robin’s tale was a hoax.
“I claim that there’s not a word of truth in it!” Jasper Jay said.
Now, there was a reason why Jasper spoke in that disagreeable way. He didn’t 80 want the story to be true. And, somehow, he felt that if he said it was a hoax, it would really prove to be one.
“I know well enough,” said Jasper, “that there’s no golden bird in Pleasant Valley—and nowhere else, either!”