IXThe Major Has a Plan
"What is your business, if I may ask?" Mr. Crow inquired of Major Monkey.
"Lately I've been spending my time travelling," the Major replied. "But you know I'm a soldier. And while I'm in Pleasant Valley I intend to form an army."
Old Mr. Crow looked somewhat worried when he heard that.
"I hope you aren't going to guard the cornfield!" he said hastily.
Major Monkey set his fears at rest.
"We'll let Farmer Green do that," he said with a wink. "This is what we'll do:we'll band ourselves together and we'll fight any strangers that come to Pleasant Valley to live."
"That's not a bad plan," Mr. Crow remarked. "But it's lucky for you that you didn't form the army before you got here yourself—else we'd have had to fightyou."
"Of course!" Major Monkey agreed. "But trust me not to make such a mistake as that."
"Who's going to be in the army?" Mr. Crow wanted to know.
"Everybody!" the Major answered, with a wave of the hand that took in the whole valley.
For as long as a minute old Mr. Crow was very thoughtful.
"I shall not care to be in it unless I can be a general," he announced at last.
"Why, certainly!" said Major Monkey."Certainly you shall be a general, Mr. Crow."
Mr. Crow swelled himself up and looked as important as he could.
"Get everybody to come to the edge of the woods, near the pasture, early to-morrow morning," Major Monkey commanded.
"Aren't you going to do any of the work?" Mr. Crow demanded. "I thought generals didn't have to do anything except look wise."
"It's easier for you to get about than it is for me. But as soon as we have our army together I'll take entire charge of it," Major Monkey informed him.
Mr. Crow was satisfied. After all, it wouldn't really bework, he told himself, to fly around and tell the people the news. In fact, the more he thought about the plan the better he liked it.
So he bade Major Monkey good-by and hurried away.
When Mr. Crow had flown out of sight the Major rolled over and over on the ground. And then he climbed a tree and swung by his tail from a limb, while he made an odd, chuckling sound.
"Ageneral!" he said. "General Crow!Why he never wore a uniform in all his life!"
On the following morning the field-and forest-folk began gathering at the edge of the woods near the pasture almost before it was light. And when Major Monkey left his snug bed in the haystack and went to the meeting-place he found an eager throng waiting for him.
Old Mr. Crow was flitting about, talking in a loud voice, and ordering people around to his heart's content.
"Silence!" Major Monkey commanded,as soon as he arrived. Mr. Crow opened his mouth to speak. But Major Monkey cut him off short.
"The first thing a soldier has to learn is toobey," he barked.
"But I'm ageneral!" Mr. Crow protested.
"Well, these aregeneralorders; so you'll have to obey 'em," said Major Monkey glibly.
And poor old Mr. Crow didn't know what to say to that.
But he couldn't help looking rather grumpy.
XThe New Army
"Now, then—fall in!" Major Monkey shouted to the whole company of field-and forest-folk.
But nobody had the slightest idea what he meant.
"You don't suppose he expects us to fall in the brook, do you?" Tommy Fox asked his nearest neighbor. If there was anything that Tommy disliked, it was getting his feet wet.
Major Monkey soon saw that nobody knew what to do.
"Form a long line, two deep!" he directed.
And then there was trouble, because everyone wanted to be in the front rank (as Major Monkey called it) in order to see everything.
After a good deal of jostling and squirming on the part of the company, and much loud talk on the part of Major Monkey, the new army at last stood stretched out in a double line along the pasture-fence.
Major Monkey seemed much pleased as he walked up and down in front of his soldiers. And then he happened to glance up.
There was Mr. Crow, perched on a limb over his head.
"Here, you!" the Major shouted. "Didn't you hear me say 'Fall in?'"
"Certainly!" said Mr. Crow. "But I'm a general, you know."
"Well, what of that?" the Majorsnapped. "So are all these people generals! You didn't think—did you?—that I'd have anybody in my army that wasn't at least a general?"
For a wonder, Mr. Crow said never a word. He was angry. But he didn't want to be left out of the army. So he decided that he had better obey. And he flapped down and took his place just in front of the front rank.
"You mustn't stand there!" Major Monkey said to him severely. "You're late falling in. There's no place left for you. So you'll have to stand behind all the others."
That was just a little more than old Mr. Crow could bear.
"I'll do nothing of the sort!" he squawked. "And I must say that this is shabby treatment to receive from an old friend."
Major Monkey certainly didn't want any trouble right at the beginning. So he hastened to soothe Mr. Crow's wounded feelings.
"Look here," he said to the old gentleman, "if I were you I shouldn't care to be a common general."
"What else can I be?" asked Mr. Crow with a hopeful gleam in his eye.
"You can be the cook," the Major suggested. "There are dozens of generals; but you'd be the only cook, you see."
Mr. Crow rather liked that idea.
"I accept your offer," he said somewhat stiffly. And then he marched down the line and took his place behind it.
Major Monkey breathed a sigh of relief. He was glad that the trouble had proved no worse. And now he turned once more to inspect the crowd of generals that was to make up his army.
"Here, you!" he said suddenly, pointing to a brownish gentleman at one end of the front rank. "What's your name?"
"Rusty Wren!" was the meek reply.
"Don't stick your tail up in the air like that!" Major Monkey cried. "You're spoiling the looks of the whole army."
Rusty Wren replied that it was very hard for him to keep his tail down for longer than a few moments at a stretch.
"I don't believe I'll be in the army," he announced. "Probably my wife is wondering where I am this moment. So I'm going home." And thereupon he flew away toward Farmer Green's dooryard, where he lived.
"Well, we're rid ofhim, anyhow," said Major Monkey. And then he noticed something else that wasn't as it should have been.
"Here, you!" he called to Peter Mink."Pull in your neck! It's too long! It sticks out and spoils the looks of the whole army."
Now, Peter Mink was a rude fellow. And he made such a rude reply that Major Monkey discharged him on the spot.
"Go away!" he cried. "We don't want any rowdies in our army."
XIWar in the Woods
Although Major Monkey had ordered him out of the army, Peter Mink declared that he wasn't going till he was ready to leave.
"Very well," said the Major easily. "You may stay here; and we'll go."
But Peter Mink was an obstinate fellow. The moment the army started to move, he went along with it. And what was worse, he insisted on walking right behind Major Monkey, and trying to strut just as the Major did.
Some of the generals couldn't help snickering. And of course Major Monkeycouldn't overlook such behavior.
"Order in the ranks!" he shouted as fiercely as he knew how.
The generals stopped tittering at once. For a minute or two everybody marched on in silence. And then the cry, "Halt!" rang suddenly out.
The generals all stopped. Major Monkey stopped, too. And his face seemed more wrinkled than ever as he looked every general in the face.
Naturally, that took some time, for there were several dozens of them.
"Who shouted 'Halt?'" the Major asked at last.
But nobody knew. At least, nobody answered. And there was a good deal of low talking and craning of necks. For some reason or other, everybody peered at Peter Mink. But he stared straight ahead in the most innocent fashion.
Major Monkey said nothing more. But he walked behind the army and picked up a stick.
"Forward, march!" he commanded then. And as the army moved on, he continued to walk in the rear, just behind old Mr. Crow.
Soon the cry, "Halt!" sounded again. And as soon as he heard it, Major Monkey threw his stick with great force and caught Peter Mink neatly in the back of his head. Peter Mink toppled over where he stood.
"There!" Major Monkey remarked. "He won't bother us any more to-day." And before the army had stopped gasping, he marched it forward again, leaving Peter Mink stretched upon the ground.
Some of the generals objected, and said that they thought that Peter Mink ought to be looked after.
But Major Monkey told them that they were in the army, and that it waswar, and they must expect even worse things to happen.
Now, Jimmy Rabbit was a tender-hearted chap. He couldn't bear the thought of leaving even a rascal like Peter Mink wounded and alone.
"I think you ought to send the cook back to take care of him," Jimmy told Major Monkey.
At that, Mr. Crow—who was the cook—spoke up and said that he was going to stay with the army.
"I don't see," he said, "how you could get along without me. An army without a cook is as good as lost."
Major Monkey promptly agreed with Mr. Crow.
"Certainly we mustn't get lost," he said. "If we were lost, the enemy never couldfind us. And we might wander about in the woods for years and years."
His remarks made some of the generals a bit uneasy. And one of them—a soldier called Billy Woodchuck—announced that he would have to be leaving.
XIIOver and Under
When Billy Woodchuck talked about leaving the army, Major Monkey became greatly excited. He muttered something under his breath aboutdeserters, andshooting them at sunrise. And he strutted up to Billy Woodchuck and asked him what he meant by quitting the army without permission.
Though Billy Woodchuck hung his head, he insisted that he must go home.
"I have an engagement," he explained, "to stand guard in the clover-patch, while my father and some other old gentlemen feast on clover-tops."
"Are they expecting an attack?" Major Monkey inquired, pricking up his ears.
"Of course not!" said Billy Woodchuck. "They're notexpectingone, or they would stay safe at home. But you never can tell what old dog Spot is going to do. My father and his friends would be disappointed if I didn't come. They would be angry, too. And just as likely as not I'd be put to bed an hour before sunset. So I shall go home now, whether you give me leave or not."
"Then I'll give you leave—if that's the case," said Major Monkey. "I can't have anybody disobeying orders; so I'll give you leave. And I'll dismiss the army until to-morrow.... The last man over the fence will be shot at sunrise," he added. It seemed as if he was determined to shoot somebody, anyhow.
Well, everyone turned and ran like thewind. Naturally, nobody wanted to be last, after what Major Monkey had said.
It looked, for a few moments, as if the whole army was going to cross the fence at the same instant. But Billy Woodchuck was so unlucky as to step into a hole. He fell head over heels. And by the time he had picked himself up and reached the fence all the rest were safe on the other side of it.
Things looked very dark for Billy Woodchuck—especially when Major Monkey grinned horribly at him between the rails and said:
"Too bad, my boy! But this is war, you know.... Please don't forget the time! To-morrow, at sunrise!"
Billy Woodchuck's heart sank. He wished he had never joined the army. And then an idea came to him. It was such a simple one that it is a wonder hehadn't thought of it instantly. Instead of goingoverthe fence, to everybody's surprise he squirmedunderit. And everybody was vastly relieved. Even Major Monkey appeared to be delighted.
"I'm afraid"—he said with a smile—"I'm afraid we'll have to shoot the rest of the army at sunrise, for they went over the fence last."
But Mr. Crow spoke up and said: "Nonsense! The rest of us went overfirst!"
Major Monkey had to admit that that was true. And he showed plainly that he was disappointed. Although he did not look the least bit cruel, it was clear that he had looked forward to shooting—and the more the merrier.
"It's really a great pity," he said, "that we can't have a shot at somebody."
XIIIThe Major Hesitates
Major Monkey's army soon became known far and wide. Its fame reached beyond Pleasant Valley, to the other side of Blue Mountain. And a good many persons who had been in the habit of making excursions into the valley now and then began to think that it was a good place to avoid.
Old Mr. Crow had a good deal to do with spreading the news. He took several long trips, just to tell people that the army was ready—and eager—to fight all strangers.
In fact, the Major said he wished Mr.Crow would mind his own affairs. For how was the army ever going to fight, if all the enemies kept out of its way?
All the generals began to tell one another that Major Monkey was a very brave soldier. And certainly hesaidnothing to change their opinion of him. He was always telling how much he liked to fight, and complaining that he was only wasting his valuable time in Pleasant Valley.
In a way the Major was right. And probably there never would have been the least trouble if Johnnie Green and his friends hadn't happened to have a picnic in the woods on the same day and in the same spot that the Major had chosen to call his generals together.
"You're a Sneak-Thief!" Jasper Jay said.
Of course, the Major couldn't drill his soldiers with Johnnie Green and a half-dozen other boys on hand to watch. 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 MajorMonkey 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.
XIVThrowing 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 thegeneralsthat 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 to do nothing at all?" Mr. Crow inquired.
"Exactly!" Major Monkey cried. "And I've no doubt that you'd be a great success."
Old Mr. Crow always liked praise. And of course the Major's remark pleased him. It made him all the more eager, too, to see the army attack Johnnie Green and his friends.
"Let's go back," said Mr. Crow, "and drive those boys out of the picnic grove!"
But Major Monkey shook his head.
"I don't want to lose my army," hesaid. "And besides we haven't any guns."
"You can throw stones, can't you?" Mr. Crow asked him.
"Oh, yes!" said the Major.
"Well, then—if I were you I'd get some stones down by the brook and go straight back to the grove and hurl them at the enemy."
He said so much more that at last Major Monkey yielded. And a little later he crept back through the tree-tops with all the stones he could carry.
Hidden high above the heads of the picnic party, Major Monkey gave several short whistles. "The attack!" he whispered to old Mr. Crow, who had returned with him to see the fun.
"Hullo!" Johnnie Green shouted, stopping short in the midst of a game of leapfrog. "Who's up there?" And he peered into the greenery above.
Nobody seemed to know the answer to his question. Certainly there was nobody missing from the picnic party.
"I wonder if it's Red Head!" said Johnnie. "You remember he said he couldn't come because he had work to-day. But he must have sneaked over here ahead of us and climbed a tree."
The words were scarcely out of Johnnie Green's mouth when a small stone plunged down from the trees and struck one of his great toes. Being barefooted, Johnnie Green let out a yell.
"Ouch!" he cried. "It's Red Head! There's no doubt about it."
If anybody else had any doubts, they faded quickly when a small shower of stones descended.
"Stop that!" the boys began to shout. "Come down!" And they threatened Red Head with terrible punishments.
Of course, Major Monkey was delighted. He knew that his army of generals could see—and hear—everything. And after he had thrown his last stone he felt so bold that he slipped down upon a lower limb, which gave him a better view of the picnic ground.
One of the boys caught a glimpse of a queer figure above him. And with a shriek he turned and fled.
His companions looked at him in wonder. And Johnnie Green couldn't imagine what had happened, when his staring eyes beheld the Major hanging from a bough over his head.
"It's a monkey!" Johnnie Green gasped. "Where in the world could he have come from?"
XVThe Retreat
Major Monkey quite enjoyed the amazement of the picnickers. And he did two very odd things, for the commander of an army: first he took off his red cap and made a low bow to Johnnie Green and his mates; and next he swung off the limb of the tree and hung by his tail and one hand.
The boys whooped with delight.
"Let's catch him!" Johnnie Green cried. And then he shouted to the boy who had run away, and who stood a good, safe distance off, looking back and wondering what was going on. "Hi, Bill!It's a monkey!" Johnnie bellowed.
Bill came running back at top speed.
"We're going to catch him," said Johnnie Green.
"How're we going to do that?" asked the boy who had been frightened and run away and come back.
Nobody answered him, for at that moment one of the youngsters flung a butternut at the Major, who caught the missile deftly and shot it back again.
A howl of delight from the ground below greeted the Major's ears.
"Let's stone him!" somebody cried.
But Johnnie Green said, "No! We don't want to hurt him. We'll climb the tree and get him."
His friends agreed that that was the better way, after all. And one after another they began to shin up the tree where Major Monkey was still cutting his queercapers. The boys had no sooner started to climb after him than the Major gave a shrill whistle. He was calling for help. But there was not a general in sight anywhere.
He could see not a single one of his whole army, except the cook, old Mr. Crow. And even he flapped away to a neighboring tree-top. As Mr. Crow remarked afterward, since he had to do nothing, he thought he could do it much better if he wasn't too near.
Major Monkey began to chatter. And Mr. Crow always declared that the Major trembled.
There is no doubt that he was alarmed. He scrambled to the very top of the tree, while the boys went up, up, up—until at last Major Monkey gave a scream and jumped into another—and smaller—tree, the top of which was far below him.
He plunged, sprawling, through the leafy boughs until he managed to seize a branch and steady himself. Then he was off like a squirrel. And long before the boys had reached the ground again Major Monkey was far away in the woods.
Mr. Crow took good care not to lose sight of Major Monkey. And when the Major at last stopped, panting, and slipped down to the ground to have a drink out of the brook, old Mr. Crow promptly joined him.
"Aha!" said Mr. Crow. "Youwere scared.Youran away!"
The Major wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and looked at Mr. Crow uneasily.
"Icameaway—yes!" he said.
Mr. Crow snorted.
"A fine soldier you are!" he criedscornfully. "You aren't brave enough to lead an army. I should think you'd be ashamed."
Major Monkey seemed pained. He said it hurt him to have Mr. Crow say such cruel things.
"It's plain," said he, "that you don't know much about an army, in spite of all I've tried to teach you. Of course I had to leave. I'm the leader of the army; and I must keep out of danger. So when the generals failed to come to my rescue when I whistled for help there was nothing I could do except retreat."
For a long time Mr. Crow was silent.
"You were scared, anyway," he remarked at last.
"I wasn't!" the Major protested.
"You were!" said Mr. Crow. "You were! You were! You were!"
Of course he was very ill-mannered.But Major Monkey was too polite to tell him so. Instead, he picked up a smooth stone out of the brook and threw it at Mr. Crow's head.
The old gentleman hopped aside just in time. And without waiting to dispute any further, he tore off as fast as he could go.
"Now who's scared?" Major Monkey called after him.
But old Mr. Crow did not stop to answer.
XVIThe Major's Trouble
After Major Monkey fled from Johnnie Green and his friends in the picnic grove, his generals declared that they wanted no leader that ran away from the enemy. And since they couldn't agree on anyone else to take the Major's place, they disbanded.
So Major Monkey lost his army. But the loss did not seem to trouble him greatly. He was almost too cheerful. And his neighbors even claimed that his spirits rose higher each day.
There is no doubt that the Major felt very gay. He was fast losing the lean andhungry look he had had when he first appeared in Pleasant Valley. And he became freer than ever as to manners.
Nobody else could go about the woods with any comfort, because one never knew when he would have to dodge a stone. For Major Monkey liked nothing better than making a body jump—unless it was bowling someone over when he failed to jump soon enough.
In time the forest-folk grew quite weary of that sport. And they began to tell one another that something would have to be done to put an end to Major Monkey's stone-throwing.
But nobody could suggest any way to cure Major Monkey of his unpleasant habit. And at last Mr. Crow went to Aunt Polly Woodchuck and asked her if she couldn't give the Major an herb of some sort to eat, which would make himstop wanting to pelt every head he saw.
But Aunt Polly replied that it wasn't possible.
"The trouble with Major Monkey," she said, "is that he eats too much as it is. And if I gave him still more food he would only throw more stones at you."
Mr. Crow exclaimed that he didn't want that to happen.
"Then you'll have to make the Major eat less," said Aunt Polly Woodchuck. "On what sort of fare is he living at present?" she inquired.
Mr. Crow answered that he wasn't quite sure, but he thought Major Monkey fed for the most part on cowbirds' eggs.
Aunt Polly Woodchuck shook her head.
"That's not possible," she cried. "There aren't enough Cowbirds' eggs in Pleasant Valley to make anybody so fat as the Major is getting. Unless I'm mistaken,he's taking the eggs of a good many others besides Cowbirds."
Mr. Crow became greatly excited.
"Then he's a thief!" he squawked. "Major Monkey is an egg thief!" And he flapped away across the pasture in a fine rage, to tell everybody what Aunt Polly Woodchuck had said.
A little later in the day Major Monkey began to notice that a good many of his neighbors looked at him very coldly. The birds, especially, glared at him as if they were actually angry. And wherever he went they set up a loud twittering. Some of them even flew at his head and tried to peck him as they darted past.
At first he couldn't imagine what was the matter. But before the day was done Jasper Jay let him know what made the bird people angry.
"You're a sneak-thief!" Jasper told the Major bluntly. "We've found at last what makes you so fat. You've been stealing eggs from every nest in the woods!"
"Tut! Tut!" said Major Monkey. "When a lazy Cowbird lays an egg in somebody else's nest, the owner ought to be grateful to me for taking the egg out and eating it."
"It's not that," Jasper Jay replied. "The trouble is, you've taken all kinds of eggs."
"Well, well!" said Major Monkey. "To be sure, I may have made a mistake now and then. But what's an egg or two, more or less, when one has a half-dozen of them?"
XVIIMajor Monkey Confesses
Major Monkey seemed surprised when Jasper Jay told him that there wasn't a bird family in the whole valley that felt it could spare a single egg.
"Of course," said Jasper, "nobody cares how many Cowbirds' eggs you eat. The Cowbirds are pests. They are too lazy to build nests of their own. And no respectable bird family likes to have a loutish young Cowbird to bring up with their own children. But you have gone too far. You have been stealing eggs right and left. And the time has come for us to put a stop to your thieving."
A number of Jasper Jay's bird neighbors had gathered around him and Major Monkey while they talked. And they all spoke up and said in good, loud tones that Major Monkey was a villain—and worse.
Anyone might think that for once the Major would have acted the least bit ashamed. But he did not. He had not even the grace to say that he was sorry for making a few "mistakes."
Instead, he stuck his red cap on one side of his head and began dancing something that might have been a jig if it had been faster.
His actions made all the birds very angry. And some of them exclaimed that there was no reason to make merry, so far as they could see.
Major Monkey promptly stopped dancing and looked grieved.
"Perhaps you would dance, too, if youhad just had a good meal of eggs," he remarked.
A shriek went up from his listeners. And old Mr. Crow exclaimed loudly: "Put him out! Put Major Monkey out!"
But nobody made a move. And Major Monkey turned to Mr. Crow and said:
"What's wrong? Have I said something I shouldn't?"
"Said!" the old gentleman echoed. "You've not onlysaida terrible thing; you'vedonea still worse one! For you've just been stealing eggs again—and you can't deny it."
A great clamor arose all at once.
"Hear! Hear!" Mr. Crow's friends cried.
And Major Monkey had hard work to make himself heard.
"Whose eggs do you think I've been eating?" he asked Mr. Crow.
Not knowing the exact answer to the question, Mr. Crow pretended not to hear it at all. But he looked so slyly at the Major that the Major himself was not deceived. He winked at Mr. Crow and shied a pebble at him.
"I'll tell you, old boy!" the Major cried. "I've been eating hens' eggs."
"Hens' eggs!" everybody repeated after him. "Hens' eggs! Where do you get 'em?"
"At Farmer Green's henhouse, of course," the Major answered. "I've been going there regularly for some time. I find that the eggs are bigger than any I can find in the woods."
"It's no wonder he's getting fat," Jasper Jay murmured as he gazed at Major Monkey.
"You'll have to stop eating so much," Mr. Crow told the Major solemnly."Aunt Polly Woodchuck says that the reason you throw so many stones is because you overeat and feel in too high spirits."
Major Monkey looked disgusted when he heard that speech.
"Aunt Polly Fiddlesticks!" he jeered. "She doesn't know what she's talking about. Why, the more eggs I eat, the more time I must spend at the henhouse. And while I'm there I can't throw stones here, can I?"
Everybody had to agree with the Major. At least, everybody but Mr. Crow remarked that what he said seemed true.
"Now, friends," said Major Monkey at last, "if there have been any eggs missing from your nests lately you can't blame me."
"Then whom can we blame?" somebody cried.
"I'd hate to say," was Major Monkey's answer. But since he looked straight at Mr. Crow as he spoke, most of the company could not help thinking that the old gentleman was the thief, after all. And when he flew into a rage they felt quite sure he was guilty.
"We always knew Mr. Crow was an old rascal!" they exclaimed.
And so Mr. Crow took himself off. But he soon recovered his good spirits. He was used to being called names. And to tell the truth, he had taken a few eggs now and then—when he thought no one was watching.
XVIIIPlanning a Journey
After they learned that Major Monkey was in the habit of going to Farmer Green's henhouse for eggs, the wild folk began to have a better opinion of him once more. So long as he didn't steal birds' eggs they were willing to overlook his stone-throwing—if he didn't throw too many.
Somehow they never seemed to think of Farmer Green's loss. Or if they did, no doubt they thought that he had so many eggs that he wouldn't mind losing a few now and then.
So it happened that Major Monkeyfound everybody most agreeable—except old Mr. Crow, who never felt the same toward him again.
But Major Monkey did not let Mr. Crow's gruffness trouble him. He had so many other cronies that he frequently remarked that he had never spent a pleasanter summer.
"I've decided"—he told Jolly Robin one day, when he stopped in the orchard to eat an apple—"I've decided to stay right here in Pleasant Valley for the rest of my life."
"My gracious!" Jolly Robin exclaimed. "Then you don't mind cold weather."
Major Monkey asked him what he meant. And it surprised him to learn that all winter long deep snow lay upon the ground, and cold winds blew, and fierce storms often raged.
Though it was a hot summer's day,Major Monkey shivered at the mere mention of such things. And he pulled his red cap further down upon his head.
"If that's the case," he said, "I certainly don't want to spend the winters here.... I don't see how you manage to live through them."
Jolly Robin laughed merrily. "Bless you!" he cried. "I don't stay here the year 'round. As soon as it begins to grow chilly I go South, where it's warm."
Now, Major Monkey looked worried when he heard about the bitter winters in Pleasant Valley. His queer face had screwed itself into even more wrinkles than it usually wore. But as soon as Jolly Robin spoke of going to a warmer place, the Major brightened at once.
"I'm going South too!" he cried. "And if you've no objection we'll travel together."
Jolly Robin said that nothing would please him more.
"I shall be glad to go with you—if my wife doesn't object," he assured the Major.
"Oh! She won't mind," said Major Monkey. "She can go with us. We'll make up a party.... She'll be lucky to go anywhere with such a famous traveller as I am."
Jolly Robin said somewhat doubtfully that he hoped Mrs. Robin would accept their plan. And then he dashed Major Monkey's high hopes by remarking, "Of course, we always fly when we go South."
The Major's face fell. He looked careworn and unhappy again.
"I don't know how to fly," he faltered. "But if you'll fly low, and slowly enough, perhaps I can run through the tree-tops fast enough to keep up with you. I hopeit isn't a long trip," he added somewhat anxiously.
"It's about a thousand miles," Jolly Robin told him.