CHAPTER VII
THE CLEVERNESS OF CHAIK JAY
Poor Chaik Jay felt a lot sadder than he looked when he saw the Woodsfolk go skipping across the Broad Field one at a time so nobody would notice them, on the way to Tommy Peele’s barn.
But he was a pretty sensible bird. “I’m glad they’re gone,� he said to himself. “That was a fine idea of Nibble Rabbit’s to go away. Killer won’t stay here long if he finds there isn’t any hunting.�
Pretty soon he was very busy exercising his stiff wing and thinking: “I can reach every sumach berry in this thicket. They’re fine eating. I feel better every minute. I’ll be able to fly before very long—if I can’t fly across the Broad Field to-night I’ll surely be able to do it in the morning.â€� He really did feel better. That was the funny part of it. It wasn’t long before he had his feathers all prinked up and his crest perked as sassy as if he were going courting.
“It’s too bad about those foolish mice,� he thought to himself. “The bad old weasel can live on them for a long time if there’s nobody else here to hunt them.� He thought harder than ever. “It would be nicer yet,� he said after another minute, “if the mice would go, too. Killer can’t eat clams and snails and bugs and roots and such things like the rest of us Woodsfolk. He’d have to go away.�
But how could Chaik do that—just one lone bluejay with a hurt wing? He kept on thinking, all the same; he thought so hard his head needed scratching. At last he began to have an idea. “Isn’t it a lucky thing they did leave me here? I can talk more bird and beast talk than any one else in all the Woods and Fields, except Miau the Catbird. I wish he’d happen along, I do. I could use him. If we could warn all the birds, Killer would never be able to catch one. But the mice——â€�
And just them someone did happen along. It wasn’t Miau, but—but, listen! It was the hoptoad! You know him—so terrible scary-ugly, but nice as anything—the one who found Nibble Rabbit’s lost bunny. Well, the hoptoad called, in his funny, gulpy voice, “Chirpy, Chaik Jay! Do you see anything of the rain?â€� He loves rain because it makes the wings of the bugs all waterlogged and it’s easy to catch them.
“Chirpy, Croaker Toad,� Chaik answered, “I can’t see a sign of it.�
“It’s coming, all the same,� gulped Croaker. “Floods of it. I feel it.�
“It is?� asked Chaik eagerly. “Mice, oh, mice! How they hate it!� And he bounced on his perch until Croaker Toad stared with his big round eyes. But a lot Chaik cared!