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"You seem to be in a hurry, so don't let me detain you, Peter," said Cresty, before Peter could find his tongue. "I just want to ask one little favor of you." "What is it?" asked Peter, who is always glad to do any one a favor. "If in your roaming about you run across an old cast-off suit of Mr. Black Snake, or of any other member of the Snake family, I wish you would remember me and let me know.
"Look up over your head," cried the voice, rather a harsh voice. Peter looked, then all in a flash it came to him who it was Chebec had meant by the handsomest member of his family. It was Cresty the Great Crested Flycatcher. He was a wee bit bigger than Scrapper the Kingbird, yet not quite so big as Welcome Robin, and more slender.
"Aren't you here early?" asked Peter. Pewee nodded. "Yes," said he. "It has been unusually warm this spring, so I hurried a little and came up with my cousins, Scrapper and Cresty. That is something I don't often do." "If you please," Peter inquired politely, "why do folks call you Wood Pewee?" Pewee chuckled happily. "It must be," said he, "because I am so very fond of the Green Forest.
"What I want to know is, why should Cresty the Flycatcher ask me to please let him know if I found any cast-off suits of the Snake family? He flew away before I could ask him why he wants them, and so I came to you, because I know you know everything, especially everything concerning your neighbors." Jenny Wren looked as if she didn't know whether to feel flattered or provoked.
"Who is there besides you and Cresty and Bully the English Sparrow who uses these old Woodpecker houses?" asked Peter. "Winsome Bluebird, stupid!" snapped Jenny Wren. Peter grinned and looked foolish. "Of course," said he. "I forgot all about Winsome." "And Skimmer the Tree Swallow," added Jenny. "That's so; I ought to have remembered him," exclaimed Peter.
Will you, Peter?" said Cresty. "A a a what?" stammered Peter. "A cast-off suit of clothes from any member of the Snake family," replied Cresty somewhat impatiently. "Now don't forget, Peter. I've got to go house hunting, but you'll find me there or hereabouts, if it happens that you find one of those cast-off Snake suits." Before Peter could say another word Cresty had flown away.
Peter looked quite as surprised as he felt. "Does Cresty make the hole?" he asked. "Goodness gracious, no!" exclaimed Jenny Wren. "Where are your eyes, Peter? Did you ever see a Flycatcher with a bill that looked as if it could cut wood?" She didn't wait for a reply, but rattled on. "It is a good thing for a lot of us that the Woodpecker family are so fond of new houses. Look!
But Peter looked so innocent that she concluded he was trying to say something nice. "I can't stop to talk to you any longer now, Peter Rabbit," said Jenny Wren, "but if you will come over here bright and early to-morrow morning, while I am out to get my breakfast, I will tell you about Cresty the Flycatcher and why he wants the cast-off clothes of some of the Snake family.
"Cresty and his wife always insist upon having a piece of Snake skin in their nest," said she. "Why they want it, goodness knows! But they do want it and never can seem to settle down to housekeeping unless they have it. Perhaps they think it will scare robbers away. As for me, I should have a cold chill every time I got into my nest if I had to sit on anything like that.
"That's a funny thing about Redeye; he dearly loves a piece of paper in his nest. What for, I can't imagine. He's as fussy about having a scrap of paper as Cresty the Flycatcher is about having a piece of Snakeskin. I had just a peep into that nest a few days ago and unless I am greatly mistaken Sally Sly the Cowbird has managed to impose on the Redeyes.
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