A MEEK CAT. 151 



there arose a great cry of distress, as though 

 some one were hurt, and a rustling of leaves, 

 proclaiming that a chase, if not a fight, was in 

 progress. I hurried downstairs, and as I ap- 

 peared the jay flew, with two catbirds after him, 

 still crying in a way I had never heard before. 

 I expected nothing less than to find a young cat- 

 bird injured, but I found nothing. Whether the 

 blue jay really had touched one, or it was a 

 mere false alarm on the part of the very excit- 

 able catbirds, I could not tell. This is the only 

 thing I have seen in the jay that might have 

 been an interference with another bird's rights ; 

 and the catbirds made such a row when I came 

 near their babies that I strongly suspect the 

 only guilt of the jay was alighting in the lilac 

 they had made their headquarters. 



The little boy blue in the apple-tree, already 

 spoken of, did not get his family off with so little 

 adventure as his pine-tree neighbor. The young- 

 ling of this nest came to the ground and stayed 

 there. The people of the house returned him to 

 the tree several times, but every time he fell 

 again. Three or four days he wandered about 

 the neighborhood, the parents rousing the coun- 

 try with their uproar, and terrorizing the house- 

 hold cat to such a point of meekness that no 

 sooner did a jay begin to squawk than he ran to 

 the door and begged to come in. At last, out of 



