Page:Bambi A Life in the Woods (1928).pdf/102

croaked. “I called him at least ten times. I wanted to fly right past him, for, thought I, he hasn’t heard me yet; I’ll fly to the hazel bush where he’s standing. He can’t help hearing me there. But at that minute it happened.”

“My voice is probably louder than yours, and I warned him as well as I could,” the crow said in an impudent tone. “But gentlemen of that stamp pay little attention to the likes of us.”

“Much too little, really,” the squirrel agreed.

“Well, we did what we could,” said the magpie. “We’re certainly not to blame when an accident happens.”

“Such a handsome Prince,” the squirrel lamented. “And in the very prime of life.”

“Akh!” croaked the jay. “It would have been better for him if he hadn’t been so proud and had paid more attention to us.”

“He certainly wasn’t proud.”

“No more so than the other Princes of his family,” the magpie put in.

“Just plain stupid,” sneered the jay.

“You’re stupid yourself,” the crow cried down from overhead. “Don’t you talk about stupidity. The whole forest knows how stupid you are.”