Johnnie jeered at Jasper as the frightened bully hurried away.
“You’d better not come skulking around here again!” he shouted.
Although the cherries hung red and juicy upon the old tree for at least a week longer, just begging to be picked—as one might say—Jasper Jay did not come back to enjoy them. He told Jolly Robin that he was entirely too busy to waste his time in an old cherry tree.
XIII
BOY WANTED!
It seemed to take Rusty Wren’s wife a long time to recover from the fright that Jasper Jay had given her. He had amused himself by dropping cherries upon the roof of her house. But the trick had not amused the Wren family in the least.
Even after Johnnie Green had driven the blue-coated rascal away from the dooryard Mrs. Rusty Wren was all aflutter. She jumped at the slightest noise. And she was so nervous that Rusty soon saw that it was a great effort for her to go abroad for food for their hungry family.
“You must stay right here at home and rest,” he urged her. “I’ll find enough for the children to eat—and for you too,” he