"But no one had any sympathy for him, or believed what he said; for it is often the case that when one has earned a bad character he is thought capable of any wickedness. So the jury declared him guilty, and the judge condemned him to die at sundown. We were all to fall upon the prisoner together, and tear him into bits with bill and claw; but while we waited for the sun to sink Will Sparrow flew up to the Judgment Tree and said:
"'Hello! What's going on here?'
"'We are just about to execute a criminal,' replied the judge.
"'What has he been doing?' asked Will, eyeing the shrike curiously.
"'He killed the titmice children this morning, and ate two of them, and stuck the other four upon a thorn bush,' explained the judge.
"'Oh, no; the shrike did not do that!' cried Will Sparrow. 'I saw the crime committed with my own eyes, and it was the cunning weasel—the one that lives in the pine stump—that did the dreadful murder.'
"At this all the birds set up an excited chatter, and the shrike again screamed that he was innocent. So the judge said, gravely: 'Will Sparrow always speaks the truth. Release the prisoner, for we have misjudged him. We must exact our vengeance upon the weasel.'
"So we all flew swiftly to the pine stump, which we knew well, and when we arrived we found the weasel sitting at the edge of his hole and laughing at us.
"'That is the very weasel I fought with,' said the shrike. 'You can see where I tore the fur from his head and back with my sharp beak.'
"'So you did,' answered the weasel; 'and in return I killed the little tomtits.'