if necessary."

"There's no sense in waiting any longer," one of Mr. Chippy's
cousins interrupted. "Let's go right in and seize the lad!"

At that the mob crowded round Rusty Wren's door. And the pert
gentleman who had just spoken thrust his head through the opening.

That, however, was as far as he was able to go. His shoulders were
altogether too broad for the small, round passage. And though his
relations attempted to push him into the house, they soon saw that
they would never succeed in their undertaking.

"Let me try!" another of Mr. Chippy's cousins cried. But he had no
better luck than the first.

Then each of the fourteen remaining cousins--and then Mr. Chippy
himself--had his turn at the door. But every one of them found that
he was about two sizes too big to squeeze through it.

Rusty Wren, watching then from inside his house, couldn't help
laughing, although it was really no joke.

Though he was usually very mild, Mr. Chippy grew terribly angry
the moment he heard Rusty's laughter. His sixteen cousins began to
scold, too. Again they tried to crowd through Rusty Wren's door.
And they made such an uproar that when Johnnie Green stepped out of
the farmhouse before breakfast he couldn't help noticing them.

"What's going on here?" he cried. And he hurried to his "wren
house," as he called Rusty's home, and drove away the noisy
visitors.

Then he shinned up the old cherry tree, to peep inside it. And as
soon as he reached the tin can which was Rusty's home Johnnie Green
thought he heard an unusual cry within it.

"That doesn't sound like a wren!" he exclaimed. "It sounds exactly
like a chipping sparrow!" Then, as he looked, he saw Chippy, Jr.'s,
head, with its bright bay cap, peer through the mouth of the syrup
can.

"There's a chippy inside my wren house!" Johnnie Green shouted to
his father, who had come to a window to see what was going on. "How
can I get him out?"

"Wait a moment!" said Farmer Green. And soon he came and handed
Johnnie a can-opener.

"Cut out the end of the can!" he directed. "Then you'll be able to
reach in and get the little beggar."

Naturally, Chippy, Jr., did not like to be called a "beggar." But
he couldn't very well prevent Farmer Green from saying whatever he
pleased. So he kept still, while Johnnie Green quickly opened a
great hole in Rusty's house. Then Johnnie carefully lifted Chippy,
Jr., out of his prison and gave him a toss into the air.

That frightened yo