"Better, thank you. What are you doing way up here in this lonely place?"
replied Reddy.

"It's a long story," said Sammy Jay.

"Tell it to me," begged Reddy Fox.

So Sammy Jay told him all about the trouble he had had on the Green Meadows
and in the Green Forest, and how hardly any one would speak to him because
they said that he kept them awake by screaming in the night. He told how he
had sat up all night and had heard what sounded like his own voice, when
all the time he was sitting with his mouth shut as tight as tight could be.
Then he told about Blacky the Crow's plan, which was that Sammy should come
to the Old Pasture and live for a week. Then, if the little people of the
Green Meadows and the Green Forest heard screams in the night, they would
know that it was not Sammy Jay who was waking them up. Reddy Fox chuckled
as he listened. You know misery likes company, and it tickled Reddy to
think that some one else had been forced to leave the Green Meadows and the
Green Forest.

That night Sammy Jay found a comfortable place which seemed quite safe in
which to go to sleep. Just after jolly, round, red Mr. Sun went to bed
behind the Purple Hills, Sammy saw Boomer the Nighthawk circling round high
in the air catching his dinner. Sammy screamed twice. Boomer heard him and
down he came with a rush.

"Why, Sammy Jay, what under the sun are you doing way off here?" exclaimed
Boomer.

"Going to bed," replied Sammy. "Say, Boomer, will you do something for me?"