get away more than once after
Mr. Weasel had started for him,' I said, just a bit provoked because
Cheeko Squirrel thought himself so smart, and then I left him all
swelled up with pride, getting out from the bushes as Mr. Blue Jay
came along screaming with anger on account of the hubbub in the club
quarters where everything is usually conducted in the most seemly
manner.

"Mr. Jay is a wise bird, and you can make a note of that. Just as soon
as he saw that clay ball hanging to Mr. Crow's leg and understood what
was beneath all the mud, he knew exactly how to fix things; but it was
quite a while before he could make Mr. Crow and Mr. Turtle hear him,
which is saying a good deal when you come to understand what a loud
voice he has. After a while, however, he succeeded in making old
Jimmy hold his peace and then he said, as if he were the president of
the club instead of only a small-sized member:

"'You can't expect Mr. Turtle to tumble out of the tree just to please
you, James Crow, for he would break himself to pieces and besides, if
what Cock Robin tells me is true, he didn't come up here of his own
free will.'

"'I'm not saying he did,' Mr. Crow snapped out short as pie crust. 'He
took hold of my leg and I couldn't get here without him, and that's
why the miserable creature is making so much trouble.'

"'I'm not doing a thing,' Mr. Turtle said, speaking as if the tears
were just ready to run down his muddy cheeks. 'I'm too old to be
tumbling around like a jumping-jack and if anybody is making trouble
it's this wretched crow, who has put on more airs than a peacock since
the club was started.'

"'How did he get hold of Crow's leg in the first place?' Mr. Jay asked
as if he were a regular judge, and had a right to pry into other
people's business.

"Then poor old Slowly told the whole story, while Cheeko snickered
and screamed from his hiding place among the thorns, and, after Mr.
Jay had studied the whole thing over, he said, bristling up the
feathers on his head, 'There's only one fair thing for you to do,
James Crow: Take old Slowly back to the shore of the pond and then
he'll let go of your leg.'

"'But how will I get all this mud off my shell?' Mr. Turtle asked,
speaking quite distinctly for a fellow who had his mouth full of
crow's leg.

"'Soak yourself till it comes off,' Mr. Jay said with a laugh, and the
president of the club asked, as if he were in a good deal of pain:

"'Will you open your mouth