head and then the other as he stared at the nuts. 
The boy laid one on the window-sill and then 
backed away. Down came the jay, seized the 
nut in great haste, and vanished. Soon he re- 
turned and found some more on the window- 
sill. Time and again he came and sometimes 
he would bring back and leave an empty peanut 
shell, which seemed to show that he did not want 
to be too selfish. 
Now Robin Hood was the leader of the jolliest 
band of gay outlaw birds in all that region. Not 
that any of them ever did many things that 
were really bad, but what they did was accom- 
plished with such an air of roguery, and they 
always screamed so much about whatever they 
undertook, that people thought them to be 
worse than they really were. Sometimes led by 
Robin Hood a half dozen would come to the trees 
about the house and shout with all their might 
for half an hour. They seemed to want every- 
one to believe that the people who lived here 
were guilty of some terrible crime. 
Robin Hood’s chief joy was to tease some 
other bird or some animal. If he chanced to see 
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