"There!" Jasper Jay cried, when Jolly had read the sign aloud. "You
see how easy it is. All you need do is to follow this road to which
the hand points."
"Then I shall have to fly, after all," Jolly Robin said. He had
expected to have a ride. And naturally he was disappointed. Then he
read the sign once more. "Sky Pond!" he exclaimed. "I don't want to go
to Sky Pond. I want to go to the South!"
"Well, Sky Pond's south of Pleasant Valley," Jasper Jay explained.
"It's right on your way to your winter home. And all you have to do
when you reach Sky Pond will be to find another sign, which ought to
say something like this: 'To the South, one thousand miles.' You see
how simple it is," Jasper Jay remarked. "With a sign-board to guide
you, you can't go wrong."
But it seemed to Jolly that the new way of travelling was far more
difficult than the old. He said as much to Jasper Jay, too. "I
wish----" he added--"I wish I had started yesterday, with the
others."
At that Jasper Jay said, "Nonsense!" And he muttered something about
dunces, and mollycoddles, and--yes! _'fraid-cats!_
Perhaps Jasper hadn't intended that Jolly Robin should hear those
words--and perhaps he had. Anyhow, he was sorry afterward that he had
spoken so loud. For the first thing he knew, Jolly Robin flew straight
at him with shrill chirps of rage. And Jasper was so surprised--and
frightened, too--that he flew off as fast as he could go, following
the road that led to Sky Pond, fifteen miles away, with Jolly Robin
after him.
Jolly chased him for a long time, until at last Jasper Jay swerved to
one side and turned toward home.
But Jolly Robin followed him no longer. He kept straight on, and on,
and on. And he flew so fast and so far before he stopped that he
overtook the party that had started a whole day ahead of him.
So he travelled to his winter home in the old-fashioned way, after
all. And though Jolly Robin laughed when he told his friends about
Jasper Jay's new style of travelling, there was one thing over which
he could not smile, even then.
You see, "'fraid-cat" was a name he couldn't abide.
X