The whole flock pursued him, with their tormenting and abuse, for perhaps a couple of miles; and then, at some signal from their leaders, dropped the chase suddenly and turned their attention to what looked like a sort of game of tag, in a wide, open pasture where no enemy could steal upon them unawares.

The imps felt themselves great heroes, but if it had not been for that red squirrel, the owl, sleepy though he was, would certainly have got one of them." The Babe wanted to ask whether the squirrel had warned them out of friendliness or just out of dislike to the owl, but before he could frame his question quite satisfactorily, or get out anything more than a hasty "But why-- ?" Uncle Andy had gone on with an emphasis which discouraged interruption.
"It was lucky for them, too, that no guns were fired on the big farm below the grove--the crows were there believed to earn the corn they stole by the grubs and cutworms and mice they killed.

That was _very_ lucky for the two imps, for they were forever hanging about the farmyard and the big locust trees that ran along the foot of the garden.

The farmer himself and his hired hands paid no attention to them, but the boy, the one who had prevented there being three imps instead of two, he was tremendously interested.

At first they were shy of him, because, perhaps, they felt him watching them out of the corners of his keen blue eyes.