"Too brown!"
"Well," said old Mr. Crow, "I'm glad to see you have a little sense. But on the whole these Redcaps are going to be a queer lot."
XVI
A SLY TRICK
This was the truth of the matter: Old Mr. Crow was jealous because he couldn't join Reddy Woodpecker's new club, The Redcaps. For days the old gentleman could speak of nothing else. He went grumbling and sneering up and down Pleasant Valley, stopping to talk with anybody he happened to see. It must be confessed that the neighbors found his ill humor very tiresome.
Meanwhile Reddy Woodpecker's club grew in numbers daily. It made Mr. Crow snort when anybody told him that The Redcaps had another new member.
Then all at once Mr. Crow's manner changed. He became quite sprightly and even winked an eye and cracked a joke now and then. His neighbors wondered what had happened to him.
They soon found out. For Mr. Crow announced that he had discovered a new member for Reddy Woodpecker's club. Strange to say, the old gentleman seemed to take great pride in helping The Redcaps.
"I'm going to take my find to the meeting of the club this afternoon," Mr. Crow told everybody.
"But you're not a member. You can't go to a meeting," his friends objected.