t return that day; but the next morning early I saw him do the
same thing. An hour later Meeko appeared and, finding nothing on the
window-sill, went to the linden. Half his store of yesterday was gone.
Curiously enough, he did not suspect at first that they were stolen.
Meeko is always quite sure that nobody knows his secrets. He searched
the tree over, went to his other hiding places, came back, counted his
peanuts, then searched the ground beneath, thinking, no doubt, the wind
must have blown them out--all this before he had tasted a peanut of
those that remained.

Slowly it dawned upon him that he had been robbed and there was an
outburst of wrath. But instead of carrying what were left to another
place, he left them where they were, still without eating, and hid
himself near by to watch. I neglected a lecture in philosophy to see the
proceedings, but nothing happened. Meeko's patience soon gave out, or
else he grew hungry, for he ate two or three of his scanty supply of
peanuts, scolding and threatening to himself. But he left the rest
carefully where they were.

Two or three times that day I saw him sneaking about, keeping a sharp
eye on the linden; but the little thief was watching too, and kept out
of the way.

Early next morning a great hubbub rose outside my window, and I jumped
up to see what was going on. Little Thief had come back, and Big Thief
caught him in the act of robbery. Away they went pell-mell, jabbering
like a flock of blackbirds, along a linden branch, through two maples,
across a driveway, and up a big elm where Little Thief whisked out of
sight into a knot hole.

After him came Big Thief, swearing vengeance. But the knot hole was too
small; he couldn't get in. Twist and turn and push and threaten as he
would, he could not get in; and Little Thief sat just inside jeering
maliciously.

Meeko gave it up after a while and went off, nursing his wrath. But ten
feet from the tree a thought struck him. He rushed away out of sight,
making a great noise, then came back quietly and hid under an eave where
he could watch the knot hole.

Presently Little Thief came out, rubbed his eyes, and looked all about.
Through my glass I could see Meeko blinking and twitching under the dark
eave, trying to control his anger. Little Thief ventured to a branch a
few feet away from his refuge, and Big Thief, unable to hold himself a
moment longer, rushed out, firing a volley of direful threats ahead of
him. In a