Happy Jack

TOMMY TIT BRINGS NEWS

No one knows too much, but many know too little.

Happy Jack.

Happy Jack very plainly was not happy.  His name was the only happy thing about him.  He fussed about on the edge of the Green Forest.  He just couldn’t keep still.  When he thought anybody was looking, he pretended to hunt for some of the nuts he had buried in the fall, and dug holes down through the snow.  But as soon as he thought that no one was watching, he would scamper up a tree where he could look over to Farmer Brown’s house and look and look.  It was very clear that Happy Jack was watching for some one and that he was anxious, very anxious, indeed.

It was getting late in the afternoon, and soon the Black Shadows would begin to creep out from the Purple Hills, behind which jolly, round, red Mr. Sun would go to bed.  It would be bedtime for Happy Jack then, for you know he goes to bed very early, just as soon as it begins to get dark.  The later it got, the more anxious and uneasy Happy Jack grew.  He had just made up his mind that in a few minutes he would have to give up and go to bed when there was a flit of tiny wings, and Tommy Tit the Chickadee dropped into the tree beside him.

“Did you find out anything?” asked Happy Jack eagerly, before Tommy had a chance to say a word.

[Illustration:  “DID YOU FIND OUT ANYTHING?” ASKED HAPPY JACK EAGERLY.]

Tommy nodded.  “He’s there!” he panted, for he was quite out of breath from hurrying so.

“Where?” Happy Jack fairly shouted the question.

“Over there in the house,” replied Tommy Tit.

“Then he hasn’t gone away!  It’s just as I said, he hasn’t gone away!” cried Happy Jack, and he was so relieved that he jumped up and down and as a result nearly tumbled out of the tree.

“No,” replied Tommy, “he hasn’t gone away, but I think there is something the matter with him.”

Happy Jack grew very sober.  “What makes you think so?” he demanded.

“If you’ll give me time to get my breath, I’ll tell you all about it,” retorted Tommy Tit.

“All right, only please hurry,” replied Happy Jack, and tried to look patient even if he wasn’t.

Tommy Tit smoothed out some rumpled feathers and was most provokingly slow about it.  “When I left here,” he began at last, “I flew straight up to Farmer Brown’s house, as I said I would.  I flew all around it, but all I saw was that horrid Black Pussy on the back doorsteps, and she looked at me so hungrily that she made me dreadfully uncomfortable.  I don’t see what Farmer Brown keeps her about for, anyway.”

“Never mind her; go on!” interrupted Happy Jack.

“Then I flew all around the barn, but I didn’t see any one there but that ugly little upstart, Bully the English Sparrow, and he wanted to pick a fight with me right away.”  Tommy looked very indignant.

“Never mind him, go on!” cried Happy Jack impatiently.

“After that I flew back to the big maple tree close by the house,” continued Tommy.  “You know Farmer Brown’s boy has kept a piece of suet tied in that tree all winter for me.  I was hungry, and I thought I would get a bite to eat, but there wasn’t any suet there.  That pig of a Sammy Jay had managed to get it untied and had carried it all away.  Of course that made me angry, and twice as hungry as before.  I was trying to make up my mind what to do next when I happened to look over on the window sill, and what do you think I saw there?”

“What?” demanded Happy Jack eagerly.

“A lot of cracked hickory nuts!” declared Tommy.  “I just knew that they were meant for me, and when I was sure that the way was clear, I flew over there.  They tasted so good that I almost forgot about Farmer Brown’s boy, when I just happened to look in the window.  You know those windows are made of some queer stuff that looks like ice and isn’t, and that you can see right through.”

Happy Jack didn’t know, for he never had been near enough to see, but he nodded, and Tommy Tit went on.

“There were many queer things inside, and I was wondering what they could be when all of a sudden I saw him.  He was lying down, and there was something the matter with him.  I tapped on the window to him and then I hurried back here.”