THE YOUNG BLUE JAY WHO WAS NOT BRAVE ENOUGH TO BE AFRAID
Everybody who is acquainted with the Blue Jays knows that they are avery brave family. That is the best thing that you can say about them.To be sure, they dress very handsomely, and there is no prettier sight,on a fine winter morning, than a flock of Blue Jays flitting frombranch to branch, dining off the acorns on the oak trees, and cockingtheir crested heads on one side as they look over the country. They aregreat talkers then, and are always telling each other just what to do;yet none of them ever do what they are told to, so they might just aswell stop giving advice.
The other people of the forest do not like the Blue Jays at all, and ifone of them gets into trouble they will not help him out. This alwayshas been so, and it always will be so. If it could be winter all thetime, the Blue Jays could be liked well enough, for in cold weather theyeat seeds and nuts and do not quarrel so much with others. It is in thesummer that they become bad neighbors. Then they live in the thickestpart of the woods and raise families of tiny, fuzzy babies in theirgreat coarse nests. It is then, too, that they change their beautifulcoats, and while the old feathers are dropping off and the new ones aregrowing they are not at all pretty. Oh, then is the time to beware ofthe Blue Jays!
They do very little talking during the summer, and the forest people donot know when they are coming, unless they see a flutter of blue wingsamong the branches. The Blue Jays have a reason for keeping still then.They are doing sly things, and they do not want to be found out.
The wee babies grow fast and their mouths are always open for more food.Father and Mother Blue Jay spend all their time in marketing, and theyare not content with seeds and berries. They visit the nests of theirbird neighbors, and then something very sad happens. When the Blue Jaysgo to a nest there may be four eggs in it; but when they go away therewill not be any left, nothing but pieces of broken egg-shell. It isvery, very sad, but this is another of the things which will always beso, and all that the other birds can do is to watch and drive the Jaysaway.
There was once a young Blue Jay in the forest who was larger than hisbrothers and sisters, and kept crowding them toward the edge of thenest. When their father came with a bit of food for them, he wouldstretch his legs and flutter his wings and reach up for the first bite.And because he was the largest and the strongest, he usually got it.Sometimes, too, the first bite was so big that there was nothing leftfor anyone else to bite at. He was a very greedy fellow, and he had noright to take more than his share, just because he happened to be thefirst of the family to break open the shell, or because he grew fast.
This same young Blue Jay used to brag about what he would do when he gotout of the nest, and his mother told him that he would get into troubleif he were not careful. She said that even Blue Jays had to look out fordanger.
"Huh!" said the young Blue Jay; "who's afraid?"
"Now you talk like a bully," said Mother Blue Jay, "for people who arereally brave are always willing to be careful."
But the young Blue Jay only crowded his brothers and sisters more thanusual, and thought, inside his foolish little pin-feathery head, thatwhen he got a chance, he'd show them what courage was.
After a while his chance came. All the small birds had learned toflutter from branch to branch, and to hop quite briskly over the ground.One afternoon they went to a part of the forest where the ground wasdamp and all was strange. The father and mother told their children tokeep close together and they would take care of them; but the foolishyoung Blue Jay wanted a chance to go alone, so he hid behind a treeuntil the others were far ahead, and then he started off another way. Itwas great fun for a time, and when the feathered folk looked down at himhe raised his crest higher than ever and thought how he would scare themwhen he was a little older.
The young Blue Jay was just thinking about this when he saw somethinglong and shining lying in the pathway ahead. He remembered what hisfather had said about snakes, and about one kind that wore rattles ontheir tails. He wondered if this one had a rattle, and he made up hismind to see how it was fastened on. "I am a Blue Jay," he said tohimself, "and I was never yet afraid of anything."
The Rattlesnake, for it was he, raised his head to look at the bird. Theyoung Blue Jay saw that his eyes were very bright. He looked right intothem, and could see little pictures of himself upon their shiningsurfaces. He stood still to look, and the Rattlesnake came nearer. Thenthe young Blue Jay tried to see his tail, but he couldn't look away fromthe Rattlesnake's eyes, though he tried ever so hard.
The Rattlesnake now coiled up his body, flattened out his head, andshowed his teeth, while all the time his queer forked tongue ran in andout of his mouth. Then the young Blue Jay tried to move and found thathe couldn't. All he could do was to stand there and watch those glowingeyes and listen to the song which the Rattlesnake began to sing:
"Through grass and fern, With many a turn, My shining body I draw. In woodland shade My home is made, For this is the Forest Law.
"Whoever tries To look in my eyes Comes near to my poisoned jaw; And birds o'erbold I charm and hold, For this is the Forest Law."
The Rattlesnake drew nearer and nearer, and the young Blue Jay wasshaking with fright, when there was a rustle of wings, and his fatherand mother flew down and around the Rattlesnake, screaming loudly to allthe other Jays, and making the Snake turn away from the helpless littlebird he had been about to strike. It was a long time before the forestwas quiet again, and when it was, the Blue Jay family were safely intheir nest, and the Rattlesnake had gone home without his supper.
After the young Blue Jay got over his fright, he began to complainbecause he had not seen the Rattlesnake's tail. Then, indeed, hispatient mother gave him such a scolding as he had never had in all hislife, and his father said that he deserved a sound pecking for hisfoolishness.
When the young Blue Jay showed that he was sorry for all the troublethat he had made, his parents let him have some supper and go to bed;but not until he had learned two sayings which he was always toremember. And these were the sayings: "A really brave bird dares to beafraid of some things," and, "If you go near enough to see the tail of adanger, you may be struck by its head."