planning mischief. You see it has grown to be a habit with Sammy Jay,
and habits, especially bad habits, have a way of growing and growing.

Now Sammy Jay had no quarrel with Johnny Chuck. Oh, my, no! He would
have told you that he liked Johnny Chuck. Everybody likes Johnny
Chuck. But just as soon as Sammy Jay found Johnny Chuck's new house,
he began to plan mischief. He didn't really want any harm to come to
Johnny Chuck, but he wanted to make Johnny uncomfortable. That is
Sammy Jay's idea of fun--seeing somebody else uncomfortable. So he
slipped away to a thick hemlock-tree in the Green Forest to try to
think of some plan to tease Johnny Chuck and make him uncomfortable.

Of course he knew that Johnny had hidden his new house in the corner
of Farmer Brown's old orchard because he wanted it to be a secret. He
didn't know why Johnny wanted it a secret and he didn't care. If
Johnny wanted it a secret, it would be fun to tell everybody about it.
As he sat wondering who he should tell first; he saw Reddy Fox
trotting down the Lone Little Path.

"Hi, Reddy Fox!" he shouted.

Reddy looked up. "Hello, Sammy Jay! What have you got on your mind
this morning?" said Reddy.

"Nothing much," replied Sammy Jay. "What's the news?"

Reddy grinned. "There isn't any news," said he. "I was just going to
ask you the same thing."

It was Sammy Jay's turn to grin, "Just as if I could tell you any