ncrib.

"Of course I'm a Pig," Grunty retorted. "I'm Mrs. Pig's son."

"Well, Mrs. Pig's son, I notice that you have helped yourself freely to
beechnuts."

"I've eaten all I could find," Grunty told Frisky with a grin.

"I don't hear any thanks," Frisky Squirrel remarked. "Don't you know
that these beechnuts belong to me and Jasper Jay and Johnnie Green?"

"Umph!"

"You did?" Frisky inquired.

"Umph!"

"Oh, you didn't!" Frisky exclaimed. "Then I suppose I shall have to
pardon you. But Jasper Jay wouldn't, if he caught you taking any of the
nuts that fall from this tree."

There was truth in what Frisky said. Even as he spoke a patch of blue
flashed in the top of the beech tree. And a harsh voice sang out,
"What's going on here?"

Jasper Jay had arrived.

Grunty Pig, however, did not even give Jasper a glance. Instead, he
began nosing about for another beechnut bur.

For a moment or two Jasper Jay watched him. And then Jasper began to
squawk.

"Stop that!" he ordered. "Don't you dare to take any of our beechnuts!"

"Umph!" said Grunty Pig. "I can't find any more on the ground. So I
suppose I shall have to obey him," Grunty muttered half under his
breath.

"Don't mumble! Speak up!" cried Jasper Jay. "If you have any excuses to
make, let's hear them!"

XXII

JASPER JAY OBJECTS

While Jasper Jay, in the beech tree, waited for Grunty Pig, on the
ground, to speak up and make his excuses for taking beechnuts, a bur
dropped from a twig and landed right in front of Grunty's nose. He fell
upon it greedily. And, tearing it open, he devoured the nuts with
relish.

For a few moments his action struck Jasper Jay dumb. That blue-coated
rascal turned to Frisky Squirrel, who clung to a limb near-by.

"Well, did you ever?" Jasper gasped. And then, having found his voice,
Jasper began to use it on Grunty Pig.

Now, Jasper Jay was a wild fellow. He often used words that made the
gentler folk in Pleasant Valley shudder. And he called Grunty Pig names
that would have made many a person angry.

Grunty Pig, however, never even blinked. And after a while Jasper Jay
used up all his special words, which he generally employed at such
times. He gave Frisky Squirrel a helpless look.

"My! My! Isn't this chap thick-skinned?" he exclaimed.

"Certainly I am!" cried Grunty Pig. "That's why I like to wallow in
mud."

"Ha!" Jasper Jay sniffed. And he spoke again to Frisky Squirrel. "This
chap is thick-headed, to