"If you'll give me time to get my breath, I'll tell you all about it," retorted Tommy Tit.
"All right, only please hurry," replied Happy Jack, and tried to look patient even if he wasn't.
Tommy Tit smoothed out some rumpled feathers and was most provokingly slow about it. "When I left here," he began at last, "I flew straight up to Farmer Brown's house, as I said I would. I flew all around it, but all I saw was that horrid Black Pussy on the back doorsteps, and she looked at me so hungrily that she made me dreadfully uncomfortable. I don't see what Farmer Brown keeps her about for, anyway."
"Never mind her; go on!" interrupted Happy Jack.
"Then I flew all around the barn, but I didn't see any one there but that ugly little upstart, Bully the English Sparrow, and he wanted to pick a fight with me right away." Tommy looked very indignant.
"Never mind him, go on!" cried Happy Jack impatiently.
"After that I flew back to the big maple tree close by the house," continued Tommy. "You know Farmer Brown's boy has kept a piece of suet tied in that tree all winter for me. I was hungry, and I thought I would get a bite to eat, but there wasn't any suet there. That pig of a Sammy Jay had managed to get it untied and had carried it all away. Of course that made me angry, and twice as hungry as before. I was trying to make up my mind what to do next when I happened to look over on the window sill, and what do you think I saw there?"
"What?" demanded Happy Jack eagerly.
"A lot of cracked hickory nuts!" declared Tommy. "I just knew that they were meant for me, and when I was sure that the way was clear, I flew over there. They tasted so good that I almost forgot about Farmer Brown's boy, when I just happened to look in the window. You know those windows are made of some queer stuff that looks like ice and isn't, and that you can see right through."
Happy Jack didn't know, for he never had been near enough to see, but he nodded, and Tommy Tit went on.