"Yes, I have!" she twittered proudly.
"I certainly hope Red-head won't steal them," said Mr. Crow. "It would be a shame if you lost your beautiful eggs.... Where is your nest, Mrs. Chippy?"
"Don't tell him!" peeped Mr. Chippy to his wife. "He wants to eat our eggs himself."
As for Mr. Crow, he gave a hoarse cry of rage, before he flapped himself away.
II
GETTING ACQUAINTED
"I don't believe—" said Mrs. Jolly Robin after old Mr. Crow had flown off in a rage—"I don't believe this Mr. Woodpecker can be such a bad person as Mr. Crow thinks. He certainly wears very stylish clothes and a very handsome red cap."
"Clothes—" said little Mr. Chippy severely—"clothes don't tell whether their wearer has a taste for eggs. Now, I wear a red cap. To be sure, it isn't as bright, perhaps, nor as big, as Mr. Woodpecker's. But it's a red cap, all the same. And everybody knows that I don't eat eggs. Everybody knows I'm no nest robber."
"You don't look like one!" cried a strange voice which made everybody jump. It was the newcomer, Mr. Woodpecker, himself! Unnoticed he had flown up. And now he perched on a limb nearby. "You don't look any more like a nest robber than I do," he told Mr. Chippy.
The whole company stared at him; and then stared at little Mr. Chippy. There was a vast difference between them. Mr. Chippy was a tiny, meek person, while Mr. Woodpecker was as bold as brass. Mr. Chippy was modestly dressed; and his cap, though it was reddish, was of a dull hue. But the newcomer wore a flashy suit of dark steel blue and white; and his cap was both very big and very red. Mr. Chippy was a shy body who said little; and when he did speak it was usually only to utter a faint chip, chip, chip, chip. But Mr. Woodpecker was very talkative. When he spoke you didn't have to strain your ears to hear what he said.