able, he
hurried to the door and hurled it as hard as he could at the
blue-coated trouble-maker.

The potato missed Jasper Jay by less than an inch, bringing up
_kerplunk!_ against the trunk of the old cherry tree, and breaking
into several pieces.

And then it was Jasper Jay's turn to be alarmed. He jumped off the
roof of Rusty Wren's house as if he had been shot and dashed off as
fast as his handsome wings could carry him. He knew of no way to
tease Johnnie Green; so there was really no sense in his staying in
Farmer Green's yard any longer.

Johnnie jeered at Jasper as the frightened bully hurried away.

"You'd better not come skulking around here again!" he shouted.

Although the cherries hung red and juicy upon the old tree for at
least a week longer, just begging to be picked--as one might
say--Jasper Jay did not come back to enjoy them. He told Jolly
Robin that he was entirely too busy to waste his time in an old
cherry tree.

XIII

BOY WANTED!

It seemed to take Rusty Wren's wife a long time to recover from the
fright that Jasper Jay had given her. He had amused himself by
dropping cherries upon the roof of her house. But the trick had not
amused the Wren family in the least.

Even after Johnnie Green had driven the blue-coated rascal away
from the dooryard Mrs. Rusty Wren was all aflutter. She jumped at
the slightest noise. And she was so nervous that Rusty soon saw
that it was a great effort for her to go abroad for food for their
hungry family.

"You must stay right here at home and rest," he urged her. "I'll
find enough for the children to eat--and for you too," he said
manfully.

And really there was nothing else that his wife could do; for her
nerves were in a frightful state.

So Rusty Wren took up his task cheerfully. He found it no easy one,
either. Feeding six growing youngsters had kept both their parents
working every minute all day long, because the children were always
clamoring for more food. And now they seemed half starved, for they
had had nothing to eat all the time that Jasper Jay had kept Rusty
and his wife hiding in their house.

Rusty Wren, however, was not one to complain, no matter what
happened. And every day from dawn till dark he hurried out of the
house to find some toothsome insect, and bring it home to drop it
into somebody's yawning mouth.

Indeed, he was so busy feeding his family that he scarcely had a
chance to eat anything himself. So he grew quit