ored body
straight at Jasper Jay and gave him a sharp nudge with his wing. And at
that Jasper stopped singing.

"What's the matter?" he asked in an angry voice.

"Matter?" said Valentine Veery. "Why, you're all wrong. You're not only
twisting the words of the song, but you don't know the air at all. It's
plain to see that it was you that made our concert sound so queerly."

Jasper Jay jeered openly at the little leader.

"The trouble--" said Jasper--"the real trouble is that you and your
friends don't know this song. I'm the only one that can sing it
correctly."

Everybody exclaimed that Jasper was a ridiculous fellow.

"The committee that invited me to come here told me that I might sing as
much as I wanted to. And here you've gone and stopped me!" Jasper Jay
complained.

Then Buddy Brown-Thrasher cried out in a clear voice that Jasper wasn't
trying his best, as he had promised the committee he would.

"In fact," said Buddy, "I'm quite sure he's trying his _worst_."

Jasper Jay looked quite fierce when he heard that remark.

"It's not so--and you can't prove it!" he screamed.

The little leader turned to Buddy Brown-Thrasher and said:

"What have you to say to that?"

This was what Buddy Brown-Thrasher had been waiting for.

"I'd like to state," he announced, "that Jasper Jay can sing very
well--when he wants to. He has always pretended that singing was silly.
And you know what a nuisance he makes of himself spoiling a good song
whenever he happens to hear one. Why, I've heard him sing beautifully!"

"You never!" howled Jasper Jay.

"Yes, I have--this very morning!" Buddy Brown-Thrasher retorted. "I was
in the young pine woods where he lives and I heard Jasper sing to his
wife--lovely, flute-like notes they were. But I can see that he's
ashamed to admit it."

Jasper Jay was so surprised that he opened and closed his bill several
times without saying anything at all. It was not often that he was at a
loss for words. And some of those present couldn't help smiling.

Jasper noticed their amusement.

"This is just a trick!" he squawked. "You invited me to your Singing
Society to tease me!"

As a matter of fact, his words were not far from the truth.

"Let us hear your best notes, Jasper!" somebody called. And others
cried, "Yes!" and "Please!" and "We're waiting!"

But Jasper Jay would do nothing but stamp his feet and hop up and down
and snap his bill together and scold. He made such a funny sig