While Jasper Jay, in the tree, waited for Grunty Pig, on the ground, to speak up and make his excuses for taking beechnuts, a bur dropped from a and landed right in front of Grunty's nose. He fell upon it greedily. And, tearing it open, he the nuts with .  
For a few moments his action struck Jasper Jay dumb. That blue-coated turned to Squirrel, who clung to a limb near-by.
 
"Well, did you ever?" Jasper . And then, having found his voice, Jasper began to use it on Grunty Pig.
 
Now, Jasper Jay was a wild fellow. He often used words that made the gentler folk in Pleasant Valley . And he called Grunty Pig names that would have made many a person angry.
 
Grunty Pig, however, never even blinked. And after a while Jasper Jay used up all his special words, which he generally employed at such times. He gave Frisky Squirrel a helpless look.
 
"My! My! Isn't this chap thick-skinned?" he exclaimed.
 
"Certainly I am!" cried Grunty Pig. "That's why I like to wallow in mud."
 
"Ha!" Jasper Jay . And he again to Frisky Squirrel. "This chap is thick-headed, too. I see that I'm going to have trouble making him understand what I say."
 
Frisky Squirrel merely grinned at his companion.
 
 
"Look here, young Porker!" Jasper called to Grunty Pig. "Doesn't Farmer Green feed you?"
 
The name "Porker" made Grunty Pig look up.
 
"I'm Mrs. Pig's son," he said. "Don't call me 'Porker'!"
 
"Well—Pig, then!" Jasper Jay squalled. "Doesn't Farmer Green feed you?"
 
"Yes!"
 
"Well, then—don't come here and take our nuts! Didn't your mother ever teach you that things that grow on trees—such things as nuts—belong to the people that live in the trees?"
 
"Does Johnnie Green live in this tree?" Grunty Pig inquired.
 
"He spends half his time here—or a quarter, anyhow," Jasper Jay . "And you may be sure he gets his share of these beechnuts. Goodness knows he leaves few enough for me and my friend h............