"Wait a moment!" Jasper Jay cried. "I"d suggest your leaving your coat right where it is. Then we can come back to our game after we"ve had our fun with the train. I"m going to win the game, so it"s hardly fair not to finish it."
Now, Mr. Crow had not liked the idea of leaving his handsome red coat upon the ground. But he never could bear the thought of being beaten. And Jasper Jay"s remark made him feel quite peevish.
"I fully expect to win this game myself," the old gentleman said somewhat stiffly. "So I"ll leave my coat here as you suggest. But I shall have to go this instant, for I must stop at my house and get my yellow coat. Of course I can"t go down to the village in my shirtsleeves."
He hurried away then, with Jasper Jay close behind him. And as soon as Mr. Crow had put on his bright yellow coat the two checker-players started for the village.
When Jasper and Mr. Crow reached the tree where the old gentleman had waited for the train the day before, they found as many as a dozen of their neighbors already there. Even as Mr. Crow dropped down upon a limb, he could hear the train coming up the track.
Mr. Crow"s friends in the tree chose the best seats they could find, in order to get a good view of the race. And at the foot of the tree Jimmy Rabbit stood on tiptoe. He had often wished he could climb a tree--but never so much as then.
XIV
THE LUCKY LAUGH
As the train drew nearer to the tree where Mr. Crow and his friends were waiting, it gave a loud shriek.
"You hear that?" said Mr. Crow. "It"s still angry." And he shouted an impudent _caw-caw_ in reply.
In a moment more the race began. Mr. Crow had no trouble in beating the train, just as he always had. And when he had pa.s.sed it he dropped quickly and swerved across the track ahead of it.
To his great surprise the train never faltered. It kept straight on, going faster and faster. And the first thing Mr. Crow knew, the last car had whipped around a curve and pa.s.sed out of sight.
Poor Mr. Crow felt very downcast. He would have liked to hurry home at once, because he hated to face his friends. But he knew they would follow him if he flew away. So he went back to meet them, wearing a bold smile.
"Did you see what happened?" he inquired. "The train was _afraid to stop_!"
Everybody laughed when Mr. Crow said that. People knew him too well to be deceived by him.
"I suppose your yellow coat frightened it," Jasper Jay jeered. "It"s too bad you didn"t wear your checkered red one."
At that remark Jimmy Rabbit p.r.i.c.ked up his long ears.
"Did you wear your red coat yesterday?" he asked Mr. Crow.
"Yes!" Mr. Crow replied gruffly. He did not like being questioned by a mere youngster like Jimmy Rabbit.
"And you say the train stopped when you flew in front of it yesterday?"
Mr. Crow grunted. But Jimmy Rabbit knew that he meant "Yes!"
"That"s it!" Jimmy Rabbit cried. And he jumped up and down in his excitement.
"That"s what?" asked Mr. Crow in a sulky tone.
"I"ll tell you!" said Jimmy. "Yesterday the train stopped because it saw your red coat. That"s the way to stop a train. You wave a red flag or a red lantern at a train and it will always stop. But I"ve noticed that a train pays no attention to any other color. Now, you could wave something green, or yellow, or blue in front of a train; and no matter how hard you waved, it would go right on as if it never saw you at all."
"Maybe you know," Mr. Crow snapped. "And maybe you don"t. I said the train was afraid to stop. And I still think so."
Jimmy Rabbit winked at the crowd in the tree.
"I must hop along now," he told them. "I"m glad I came to see the race, for it has been even more fun than I expected."
Then Jasper Jay gave Mr. Crow a great start.
"It"s too bad--" he said--"it"s too bad you can"t wear your red coat any more, Mr. Crow."
"How"s that?" asked Mr. Crow quickly.
"You promised that if we didn"t say it was a good joke you"d never wear a checkered red coat again."
Now, Mr. Crow had forgotten all about that remark. And for a moment he looked worried. Then he turned cheerful all at once.
"Look here!" he cried. "When I came back to this tree you all laughed, didn"t you?"
Everybody admitted that.
"Then there must have been a good joke somewhere," Mr. Crow said. "And I shall wear my red coat as often as I please."
No one really cared, anyhow, whether he did or whether he didn"t. But Mr.
Crow was angry with Jasper Jay. And he refused to finish the game of checkers with him.
XV
MR. CROW"S NEW COAT
When Mr. Crow decided, one fall, that he would stay in Pleasant Valley during the winter, instead of going South, he remembered at once that he would need a thick overcoat.
That was when he went to Mr. Frog"s tailor"s shop, for Mr. Frog, you know, was a tailor.
"I want you to make me a warm overcoat." Mr. Crow told him. "Can you do it?"
"Certainly!" said Mr. Frog. "You"ve come to the right place. Everybody says that I"m the best tailor in Pleasant Valley." And that was quite true--because he was the _only_ one. "What"ll you have--stripes, checks, or spots?" Mr. Frog asked briskly.
"What do you suggest?" Mr. Crow replied. He had not thought much about his new coat--except that he wanted it to be warm.
"Spots, by all means!" said Mr. Frog. "I always wear "em myself. They"re the best, to my mind. For if you happen to get a spot on your coat, what"s one spot more?"
"That"s a good idea," Mr. Crow said. "And how much will you ask to make me a spotted coat?"
"I charge by the spot," said Mr. Frog. "The more spots, the more the coat will cost. So I"d advise you to take a coat with large spots, because there"ll be fewer of "em and the price will be less."