When the Crows who have been away for the winter return to the forest,
all their relatives gather on the tree-tops to welcome them and tell the
news. Those who have been away have also much to say, and it sometimes
seems as though they were all talking at once. They spend many days in
visiting before they begin nest-building. Perhaps if they would take
turns and not interrupt each other, they would get the news more
quickly, for when people are interrupted they can never talk well.
Sometimes, too, one hungry fellow will fly off for a few mouthfuls of
grain, and get back just in time to hear the end of a story. Then he
will want to hear the first part of it, and make such a fuss that they
have to tell it all over again just for him.
At this time in the spring, you can hear their chatter and laughter,
even when you are far away; and the song-birds of the forest look at
each other and say, "Dear me! The Crows are back." They have very good
reasons for disliking the Crows, as any Robin will tell you.
There was one great shining black Crow who had the loudest voice of all,
and who was not at all afraid to use it. This spring he looked very lean
and lank, for it had been a long, cold winter, and he had found but
little to eat, acorns, the seeds of the wild plants, and once in a
great while a frozen apple that hung from its branch in some lonely
orchard.
He said that he felt as though he could reach around his body with one
claw, and when a Crow says that he feels exceedingly thin. But now
spring was here, and his sisters and his cousins and his aunts, yes, and
his brothers and his uncles, too, had returned to the forest to live. He
had found two good dinners already, all that he could eat and more too,
and he began to feel happy and bold. The purple gloss on his feathers
grew brighter every day, and he was glad to see this. He wanted to look
so handsome that a certain Miss Crow, a sister of one of his friends,
would like him better than she did any of the others.
That was all very well, if he had been at all polite about it. But one
day he saw her visiting with another Crow, and he lost his temper, and
flew at him, and pecked him about the head and shoulders, and tore the
long fourth feather from one of his wings, besides rumpling the rest of
his coat. Then he went away. He had beaten him by coming upon him from
behind, like the sneak that he was, and he was afraid that if he waited
he might yet get the drubbing he deserved. So he flew off to the top of
a hemlock-tree where the other Crows were, and told them how he had
fought and beaten. You should have seen him swagger around when he told
it. Each time it was a bigger story, until at last he made them think
that the other Crow hadn't a tail feather left.
The next day, a number of Crows went to a farm not far from the forest.
Miss Crow was in the party. On their way they stopped in a field where
there stood a figure of a man with a dreadful stick in his hand.
Everybody was frightened except Mr. Crow. He wanted to show how much
courage he had, so he flew right up to it. They all thought him very
brave. They didn't know that down in his heart he was a great coward. He
wasn't afraid of this figure because he knew all about it. He had seen
it put up the day before, and he knew that there was no man under the
big straw hat and the flapping coat. He knew that, instead of a
thinking, breathing person, there was only a stick nailed to a pole. He
knew that, instead of having two good legs with which to run, this
figure had only the end of a pole stuck into the ground.
Of course, he might have told them all, and then they could have
gathered corn from the broken ground around, but he didn't want to do
that. Instead, he said, "Do you see that terrible great creature with a
stick in his hand? He is here just to drive us away, but he dares not
touch me. He knows I would beat him if he did." Then he flew down, and
ate corn close beside the figure, while the other Crows stood back and
cawed with wonder.
When he went back to them, he said to Miss Crow, "You see how brave I
am. If I were taking care of anybody, nothing could ever harm her." And
he looked tenderly at her with his little round eyes. But she pretended
not to understand what he meant, for she did not wish to give up her
pleasant life with the flock and begin nest-building just yet.
When they reached the barn-yard, there was rich picking, and Mr. Crow
made such a clatter that you would have thought he owned it all and that
the others were only his guests. He flew down on the fence beside a
couple of harmless Hens, and he flapped his wings and swaggered around
until they began to sidle away. Then he grew bolder (you know bullies
always do if they find that people are scared), and edged up to them
until they fluttered off, squawking with alarm.
Next he walked into the Hen-house, saying to the other Crows, "You might
have a good time, too, if you were not such cowards." He had no more
than gotten the words out of his bill, when the door of the Hen-house
blew shut and caught there. It was a grated door and he scrambled wildly
to get through the openings. While he was trying, he heard the hoarse
voice of the Crow whom he had beaten the day before, saying, "Thank you,
we are having a fairly good time as it is"; and he saw Miss Crow picking
daintily at some corn which the speaker had scratched up for her.
At that minute the great Black Brahma Cock came up behind Mr. Crow. He
had heard from the Hens how rude Mr. Crow had been, and he thought that
as the head of the house he ought to see about it. Well! one cannot say
very much about what happened next, but the Black Brahma Cock did see
about it quite thoroughly, and when the Hen-house door swung open, it
was a limp, ragged, and meek-looking Crow who came out, leaving many of
his feathers inside.
The next morning Mr. Crow flew over the forest and far away. He did not
want to go back there again. He heard voices as he passed a tall tree by
the edge of the forest. Miss Crow was out with the Crow whom he had
beaten, and they were looking for a good place in which to build. "I
don't think they will know me if they see me," said Mr. Crow, "and I am
sure that I don't want them to."
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