What was Anne’s surprise then one June morning, to see in the orchard unmistakable flashes of “jay blue,” which is a colour by itself, and not to be mistaken by the owner of the Magic Spectacles for the colour of either bluebird, indigo-bird, king-fisher, or heron. Next she heard the jay’s bell note, not the harsh jeering “jay-jay” of alarm, but the spring call, like the striking together of well-tempered bits of metal. Then came a chorus of alarm cries from all the birds of the neighbourhood, and a commotion in the trees over the garden house.
As Anne was going out to see what was the matter, a flash of blue crossed the sunlight and landed on the walk, and there was Tchin-dees the blue jay himself, in flawless bravery of feathers.
He put his head on one side and peered here and there saucily, as much as to say: “Where is your old dog bread, anyway? Stingy this morning, aren’t you? Yes, I’ve been here before, you can’t fool me. I know it’s after breakfast time.”
The dog dishes were not in sight, and there appeared to be no scraps upon the ground, but Tchin-dees was not daunted. In the nursery kennel slept Jack and Jill, stretched out as flat as if they were cookie dogs.
Their food dish stood by the doorway, well inside. It was full, for they had not yet breakfasted.
Tchin-dees spied it, took a survey of the situation, hopped into the dish, and began to stir up the bits with his feet in order to more easily choose the smallest.
He gave a start and flutter when he spied Anne, but making up his mind that a meal in the stomach is worth several in the dish, returned to the charge, finally carrying an obstinate fragment to the stone wall where he beat it with his bill, keeping one eye on Anne meanwhile, and making a face at her she avers, as he flew away.
When Anne told Miss Jule about the “table boarders,” she laughed and said, “What have I always told you should be painted on boards and posted in every country town like the ‘keep-off-the-grass’ signs in parks?” Anne remembered that it was,—
“If you hate birds, keep cats.
If you love birds, keep dogs.”