“Your jay!” said his father. “Where do you keep him?” He thought he knew everything there was on the farm.
“Down cellar,” said Louie. He was just a little scared that maybe his father would be angry if Chaik made a noise, because he had got so angry when Tad Coon did. “He’ll be quiet—I know he will—but I couldn’t bear to leave him out in the rain. The minute it stops I’ll let him go again—truly I will.”
“Hm! First thing I know I’ll have a menagerie instead of a farm,” was all the man answered to that. “Give me the lantern. I’ll tend to locking up the barns so the doors won’t blow off their hinges. You take a couple of blocks from that woodpile and fix the cellar door so your coon isn’t locked out. I guess it won’t rain in. And put some corn down there. The mice are very bad again. He’s a mighty good beast to have around—that is, if I don’t catch him after my chickens——”
But Louie was gone to fix a fine place for Tad to hide from the storm.
CHAPTER II
AN EVENING PARTY AT THE THOMSONS’ HOUSE
Bang! Smash! Crash! Splash! The thunder roared and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky as though it wanted a place of its own to hide and couldn’t find one. Chaik Jay woke up in the black dark and looked around. For a minute he couldn’t think where he was. He could hear the wind howling, but the stick he perched on didn’t move in it and his feathers didn’t ruffle. He could hear the rain pounding and not a single drop fell on him. He was perfectly comfortable, only he felt just a little scared and lonely, though he was still too sleepy to think why.
Pretty soon he heard a whistle. Then he knew just where he was. That was Louie whistling to let Tad Coon know he had left some corn by the cellar door for him.
I tell you Chaik was glad to know Louie was right there, almost beside him. He began to call and flutter his wings. “There, there, jay bird,” said the little boy in his very nicest voice, “I won’t forget you. Are you ready to eat again?” He rattled some seeds on the floor of Chaik’s cage. But Chaik went on fluttering. It wasn’t food he wanted, it was company. If he couldn’t have Tad Coon (Tad was still eating the rat) then Louie’s nice warm finger was the next best thing. Louie didn’t particularly like staying down there in the dark; it was nicer in the bright, warm kitchen. Besides, now he’d told his father about Chaik Jay he thought maybe he’d like to see the handsome bird. Maybe he’d make friends like he did with Tad Coon.
In about one minute Chaik was blinking in the light of the kitchen lamp. It was really very much like the lantern Louie had for his feast down by Doctor Muskrat’s pond, only there weren’t nearly so many beetles flying around it. That was because the screen kept them out, but Chaik didn’t know about screens. He had to leave Louie’s finger to catch that first beetle.
“I guess you couldn’t see to eat down there in the dark,” apologized the thoughtful boy, so he sprinkled some food on the table.