atch. So the generals lurked
behind trees and wished that the picnickers would go away.

Meanwhile Major Monkey himself sulked in the tree-tops, hidden high up
among the leafy branches, where nobody would be likely to spy him. He
watched the boys while they ate their luncheon, which they devoured as
soon as they reached the picnic grove. And then he looked on while they
played games--hide-and-seek, and duck-on-the-rock, and follow-my-leader,
and ever so many others.

Now and then old Mr. Crow flew up and tried to talk with Major Monkey.
But the Major had very little to say. And at last Mr. Crow lost all
patience with him.

"Are you going to sit here all day and do nothing?" Mr. Crow demanded.

"S-sh!" Major Monkey said. "Do be quiet! Do you want them to hear
you?"

"I don't care if they hear me," Mr. Crow cried. "It's plain to me that
these boys will stay here all day if they're not driven away."

"No doubt!" Major Monkey agreed, as he plucked a tender shoot off the
tree and ate it. "But what can we do?"

"Do!" said Mr. Crow. "What's the army for--I'd like to know--if not to
fight?"

Major Monkey's wrinkled face seemed somewhat pale.

"Quite true!" he agreed again. "But I'm not sure we're strong enough
to do anything against these ruffians down below. I'm not sure that I
can depend on the army in a pinch."

To the Major's great alarm, Mr. Crow squalled with rage.

"You've insulted me!" he shrieked. And he made such a commotion that
Major Monkey scampered off, beckoning to Mr. Crow to follow him.

Just as they left, a stone came crashing through the leaves, thrown by
some boy who had noticed Mr. Crow's hoarse cries.

And that made Major Monkey run all the faster.

XIV

Throwing Stones

Major Monkey never stopped running until he had gone so far that the
voices of the picnickers reached him only faintly.

Old Mr. Crow, who had followed him closely, began to think that the
Major was frightened. But he knew he must be mistaken when Major
Monkey came to a halt and said: "Now we can talk without disturbing
anybody."

So Mr. Crow repeated that in his opinion the Major had insulted him.

"You've just the same as said that I'm a poor soldier!" he declared.

Major Monkey told him that it was not so.

"It's the _generals_ that I can't trust," he explained. "But you are
different. You're the cook, you remember. In the midst of a fight, you
wouldn't be expected to cook."

"Then my part would be t