BLACKY IS MUCH PLEASED WITH HIMSELF
You cannot tell from a single feather what a bird looks like,
nor from a lone hair how big a dog is.
_Bowser the Hound._
Straight away towards the farm where Bowser the Hound was flew Blacky
the Crow. Every few minutes he would caw encouragement to Reddy Fox,
who, as you know, was following, but who of course could not travel as
fast as did Blacky. In between times Blacky would chuckle to himself. He
was mightily pleased with himself, was Blacky.
In the first place his plan was working beautifully. You know what he
was after was to get Reddy Fox over to that farm where Bowser was. He
hoped that if Reddy should catch one of those fat hens, the farmer would
put Bowser on Reddy's trail. He knew that Reddy would probably return
straight home, and Bowser, following Reddy's trail, would thus find his
way back home to Farmer Brown's. Of course, it all depended on whether
Reddy would catch one of those fat hens and whether Bowser would be
allowed to hunt him. Blacky had a plan for making sure that if Reddy did
get one of those hens the folks in the farmhouse would know it.
But what tickled Blacky most the knowledge that Reddy Fox thought he was
fooling Blacky. You remember that Reddy had pretended to be very weak.
Blacky knew that Reddy was nothing of the kind. At the very first
opportunity Blacky stopped in the top of a tall tree as if to rest. His
real reason for stopping was to have a chance to look back. You see,
while he was flying he couldn't look behind him.
Presently, just as he expected, he saw in the distance a little red
speck, and that little red speck was moving very fast indeed. There was
nothing weak or feeble in the way that red speck was coming across the
snow-covered fields. Blacky chuckled hoarsely.
Nearer and nearer came the red speck, and of course the nearer it came
the larger it grew. Presently it stopped moving fast. It began to move
slowly and stop every once in a while, as if to rest. Blacky laughed
right out. He knew then that Reddy Fox had discovered him sitting in the
top of that tall tree and was once more pretending. It was a sort of a
game, a game that Blacky thoroughly enjoyed.
As soon as he knew that Reddy had discovered him, he once more spread
his black wings and started on. The same thing happened over again. In
fact, Blacky did not fly far this time before once more waiting. It was
great fun to see Reddy suddenly pretend that he was too weak to run. It
was such fun that Blacky quite forgot that he had had no breakfast.
Yes, Blacky the Crow was very much pleased with himself. It looked very
much as if he would succeed in helping Bowser the Hound. This pleased
him. But it pleased him still more to know that he was fooling clever
Reddy Fox while Reddy thought he was the one who was doing the fooling.