XVIII
ON TOP OF THE BARN
All the feathered folk on the roof of Farmer Green’s barn saw at once that Jasper Jay had told the truth. The golden bird was a rooster, just as Jasper had said. But it seemed strange to them that a rooster should sit on so high a perch.
“It looks to me,” said old Mr. Crow, “it looks to me as if he had flown up here and lighted on that rod and then was afraid to fly down again.”
“I’ll knock him off!” cried Jasper Jay. And he made ready to swoop at the stranger.
“I wouldn’t do that!” said Jolly Robin. 91
“No!” Jasper Jay replied. “I know you wouldn’t. You’d be afraid to do such a thing.”
“It’s not that,” Jolly Robin told him, “though he is ten times my size. This is what I mean: He’s a peaceable fellow. And though I will admit that he seems a little too proud, he hasn’t harmed anybody. So why should anybody harm him?”
“He’s a barnyard fowl and he belongs on the ground,” Jasper Jay declared. “If we let him stay up here in the air there’s no knowing what Farmer Green’s fowls will do. All his hens and roosters—and he has a hundred of ’em—may take to flying about where they don’t belong. This golden gentleman is setting them a bad example. And it is my duty to teach him a lesson.”
Now, the real reason why Jasper wanted 92 to knock the golden rooster off his high perch was because he was so handsome. Jasper’s fine blue suit looked quite dull beside the golden dress of the stranger. And that was more than Jasper could stand.