This was the truth of the matter: Old Mr. Crow was jealous because he couldn't join Reddy Woodpecker's new club, The Redcaps. For days the old gentleman could speak of nothing else. He went and up and down Pleasant Valley, stopping to talk with anybody he happened to see. It must be confessed that the neighbors found his ill humor very .
 
Meanwhile Reddy Woodpecker's club grew in numbers daily. It made Mr. Crow snort when anybody told him that The Redcaps had another new member.
 
Then all at once Mr. Crow's manner changed. He became quite and even an eye and cracked a joke now and then. His neighbors wondered what had happened to him.
 
They soon found out. For Mr. Crow announced that he had discovered a new member for Reddy Woodpecker's club. Strange to say, the old gentleman seemed to take great pride in The Redcaps.
 
"I'm going to take my find to the meeting of the club this afternoon," Mr. Crow told everybody.
 
"But you're not a member. You can't go to a meeting," his friends objected.
 
"Can't I?" said Mr. Crow wisely. "The air is free. I can go anywhere I please."
 
So that afternoon Mr. Crow flew down to the lower end of the meadow, where The Redcaps were . He took a friend with him, whom he left hidden in some reeds at the edge of the swamp.
 
To Reddy Woodpecker Mr. Crow said, "You'd like another member, I dare say."
 
"Certainly!" Reddy replied. "The more the merrier—provided they wear red caps."
 
"I think," said Mr. Crow, "when you see the gentleman I have in mind you'll say he has a red cap."
 
"Bring him up!" ............