round, go round the house, and saunter
back with his hands in his pockets till he saw the penny, which he
pounced upon with almost the joy of treasure-trove in the highway.

Meeko made a sad end--a fate which he deserved well enough, but which I
had to pity, spite of myself. When the spring came on, he went back to
evil ways. Sap was sweet and buds were luscious with the first swelling
of tender leaves; spring rains had washed out plenty of acorns in the
crannies under the big oak, and there were fresh-roasted peanuts still
at the corner window-sill within easy jump of a linden twig; but he took
to watching the robins to see where they nested, and when the young were
hatched he came no more to my window. Twice I saw him with fledgelings
in his mouth; and I drove him day after day from a late clutch of
robin's eggs that I could watch from my study.

He had warnings enough. Once some students, who had been friendly all
winter, stoned him out of a tree where he was nestrobbing; once the
sparrows caught him in their nest under the high eaves, and knocked
him off promptly. A twig upon which he caught in falling saved his life
undoubtedly, for the sparrows were after him and he barely escaped into
a knot hole, leaving the angry horde clamoring outside. But nothing
could reform him.

One morning at daylight a great crying of robins brought me to the
window. Meeko was running along a limb, the first of the fledgelings in
his mouth. After him were five or six robins whom the parents' danger
cry had brought to the rescue. They were all excited and tremendously in
earnest. They cried thief! thief! and swooped at him like hawks. Their
cries speedily brought a score of other birds, some to watch, others to
join in the punishment.

Meeko dropped the young bird and ran for his den; but a robin dashed
recklessly in his face and knocked him fair from the tree. That and the
fall of the fledgeling excited the birds more than ever. This thieving
bird-eater was not invulnerable. A dozen rushed at him on the ground
and left the marks of their beaks on his coat before he could reach the
nearest tree.

Again he rushed for his den, but wherever he turned now angry wings
fluttered over him and beaks jabbed in his face. Raging but frightened,
he sat up to snarl wickedly. Like a flash a robin hurled himself down,
caught the squirrel just under his ear and knocked him again to the
ground.

Things began to look dark for Meeko. The birds grew