He thought and he thought and he thought and he thought, and littleby little a plan worked out inside his little yellow head. Then hechuckled. He chuckled right out loud, then hurriedly looked aroundto see if any one had heard him. No one had, so he chuckledagain. He cocked his head on one side and half closed his eyes, asif that plan was something he could see and he was looking at itvery hard. Then he cocked his head on the other side and did thesame thing.

"It's all right, " exclaimed he at last. "It'll give my relatives a lotof fun, and of course they will be fairly grateful to me for that. Itwon't hurt Hooty or Mrs. Hooty a bit, but it will make them fairlyangry. They have fairly short tempers, and people with short tempersusually forget everything else when they are angry. We'll pay them avisit while the sun is bright, because then maybe they cannot seewell enough to catch us, and we'll tease them until they lose theirtempers and forget all about keeping guard over those eggs. ThenI'll slip in and get one and maybe both of them. Without knowingthat they are doing anything of the kind, my friends and relativeswill help me to get a good meal. My, how good those eggs willtaste!"