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?"




XVII

Major Monkey Confesses


Major Monkey seemed surprised when Jasper Jay told him that there