s, they thought that the real nuisance was Jasper Jay.

Now, one of the finest singers in the whole neighborhood was Buddy
Brown-Thrasher. Though he belonged to the Pleasant Valley Singing
Society, he sang so well that he usually preferred to sing by himself,
instead of attending a singing party. Each morning and each evening he
would seat himself in the topmost branches of a tree near the thicket
where he lived; and there he would sing his favorite song over and over
again.

Often other birds some distance away would cease their own music just to
enjoy his, for it was very beautiful. If a wooden Indian had roamed
through the woods where Buddy Brown-Thrasher was singing, he would have
stopped to listen. Nobody could have helped doing that.

At least, nobody could have helped listening except Jasper Jay. In his
opinion, Buddy Brown-Thrasher was the most annoying of all the feathered
songsters. He often went out of his way to interrupt Buddy's
evening-song. (In the morning Jasper was in too great a hurry for his
breakfast to trouble himself in any such fashion.)

Well, it is not surprising that Buddy Brown-Thrasher should be upset by
Jasper Jay's provoking visits. It is scarcely pleasant, when you are
singing your best notes in a tree-top, to have them suddenly spoiled by
a harsh _jay, jay_, and to be mocked with boisterous laughter. The time
came at last when Buddy Brown-Thrasher said he couldn't stand it any
longer.

"Something will have to be done!" he declared. So he put on his
thinking-cap at once. Being a gentlemanly sort of person, he never once
thought of _fighting_ Jasper Jay. But he felt sure that there must be
some way to teach Jasper better manners. He knew, however, that there
was no use of trying to reason with the rude fellow. If he had merely
talked with Jasper, and asked him if he wouldn't please do differently,
Buddy Brown-Thrasher would have received no more than a jeering shout in
reply.

Naturally, he hoped for something more satisfactory than that.

XIV

FINDING A WAY

"WHAT can you do?" the other feathered folk asked Buddy Brown-Thrasher,
when he complained about Jasper Jay's rudeness in interrupting his
singing. "You don't intend to _fight_ Jasper, do you?"

"I think--" replied Buddy--"I think I can find a better way than that."
And that was all he would say.

As usual, Jasper came to Buddy Brown-Thrasher's thicket that evening and
screamed his loudest, when Buddy began to sin