CHAPTER III
CHAIK MAKES DISCOVERIES ABOUT THE HOLES MEN LIVE IN
I just tell you Chaik and Tad didn’t mind that rain. Tad Coon had a big, dry cellar to hunt in and a fine supply of mice who came to nibble his corn. Chaik Jay slept in his corner of the window sill in the kitchen behind the curtain. It wasn’t quite so convenient as perching, for his long claws got in his way, but he found the varnished back of a chair too slippery; besides, he wanted to keep an eye on his raisins. Those thieving mice once tried to steal them. He gave one of them a good peck; it ran off squealing with one leg up, and after that they knew better than to bother him.
When Louie’s father came padding in and began putting on his shoes that he had left under the stove to dry the night before he danced and flapped good morning. And wasn’t the man just flattered to death to have a wild bird out of the woods as friendly as that?
When Chaik flapped he got more excited than ever. “My wing is well again!” he squawked. “Yah! My wing is well again!” Then didn’t he have some fun? He could fly over the stove and perch on the handle of the teakettle while Mr. Thomson laid the fire for breakfast.
But all the man said was, “You think you own this house, don’t you? Well, I dunno but you’re about right, you sassy thing!”
Chaik just answered, “Hey?” That’s all he said when Mr. Thomson opened the door to go out and Chaik’s well wing brushed against his ear as he slipped out beside him. “Now look what I’ve done,” said the man who didn’t like Woodsfolk. “I s’pose that’s the last we’ll see of you.” And he felt so lonesome as he watched Chaik go flitting off through the rain that he remembered about bringing back something from the barn for Tad Coon’s breakfast. He wanted Tad to stay.
But he needn’t have worried about never seeing Chaik Jay again. Chaik knew when he was well off. He just wanted to take a good flippity-flap with his well wing to be sure it worked right, and he was ’most afraid to try it in the house for fear he’d hit something with it. My, but it was fun to fly up high and come sliding down the air again; it was fun even if it was still raining.
But he didn’t stay out in the rain long enough to get very wet. He went over to the barn and poked around. He was a little scary at first about going in the dark doorway, but after he’d been in there a little while he just had to hunt up Tad Coon. Tad was so full of mice he was dozing off to sleep in the cellar; he came out when he heard Chaik calling.
“Oh, Tad!” Chaik exclaimed, bobbing his head and flirting his tail because he was too excited to keep still even while he was talking. “This is a wonderful place. That big barn where the cows live is perfectly safe for birds. Those swallows have left their nests all over it, and they’re such scary fellows they wouldn’t stay a minute if anything happened to one of them. I found a robin’s nest, too, a mud one, but it’s round, not flat on one side like a swallow’s, and it’s too big for a phoebe bird—I sat in it to see. (Tad Coon grinned at that.) Besides, it hasn’t any cocoons or moss in it.”
“I thought you’d like the barn,” Tad nodded. “But where were you last night? I couldn’t find you anywhere. And your supper is still in your cage. Did you get anything to eat?”