Blacky the Crow | Page 8

relatives made a tremendous racket around Mrs. Hooty,
and the more angry she grew, the more they screamed and called her
names and darted down almost in her face, as they pretended that they
were going to fight her. They were so busy doing this, and Blacky was
so busy watching them, hoping that Mrs. Hooty would leave her nest
and give him a chance to steal the eggs he knew were under her, that no
one gave Hooty a thought.
All of a sudden he was there, right in the tree close to the nest! No one
had heard a sound, but there he was, and in the claws of one foot he
held the tail feathers of one of Blacky's relatives. It was lucky, very
lucky indeed for that one that the sun was in Hooty's eyes and so he had
missed his aim. Otherwise there would have been one less Crow.
Now it is one thing to tease one lone Owl and quite another to tease
two together. Besides, there were those black tail feathers floating
down to the snow-covered ground. Quite suddenly those Crows
decided that they had had fun enough for one day, and in spite of all
Blacky could do to stop them, away they flew, cawing loudly and
talking it all over noisily. Blacky was the last to go, and his heart was
sorrowful. However could he get those eggs?

CHAPTER IX
: Blacky Thinks Of Farmer Brown's Boy
"Such luck!" grumbled Blacky, as he flew over to his favorite tree to do
a little thinking. "Such luck! Now all my neighbors know about the nest
of Hooty the Owl, and sooner or later one of them will find out that
there are eggs in it. There is one thing about it, though, and that is that
if I can't get them, nobody can. That is to say, none of my relatives can.
I've tried every way I can think of, and those eggs are still there. My,
my, my, how I would like one of them right now!"
Then Blacky the Crow did a thing which disappointed scamps often do,
-- began to blame the ones he was trying to wrong because his plans
had failed. To have heard him talking to himself, you would have
supposed that those eggs really belonged to him and that Hooty and
Mrs. Hooty had cheated him out of them. Yes, Sir, that is what you
would have thought if you could have heard him muttering to himself
there in the tree-top. In his disappointment over not getting those eggs,
he was so sorry for himself that he actually did feel that he was the one
wronged, -- that Hooty and Mrs. Hooty should have let him have those
eggs.
Of course, that was absolute foolishness, but he made himself believe it
just the same. At least, he pretended to believe it. And the more he
pretended, the angrier he grew. This is often the way with people who
try to wrong others. They grow angry with the ones they have tried to
wrong. When at last Blacky had to confess to himself that he could
think of no other way to get those eggs, he began to wonder if there
was some way to make trouble for Hooty and Mrs. Hooty. It was right
then that he thought of Farmer Brown's boy. Blacky's eyes snapped. He
remembered how, once upon a time, Farmer Brown's boy had
delighted to rob nests. Blacky had seen him take the eggs from the
nests of Blacky's own relatives and from many other feathered people.
What he did with the eggs, Blacky had no idea. Just now he didn't care.
If Farmer Brown's boy would just happen to find Hooty's nest, he
would be sure to take those eggs, and then he, Blacky, would feel better.
He would feel that he was even with Hooty.
Right away he began to try to think of some way to bring Farmer

Brown's boy over to the lonesome corner of the Green Forest where
Hooty's nest was. If he could once get him there, he felt sure that
Farmer Brown's boy would see the nest and climb up to it, and then of
course he would take the eggs. If he couldn't have those eggs himself,
the next best thing would be to see some one else get them.
Dear me, dear me, such dreadful thoughts! I am afraid that Blacky's
heart was as black as his coat. And the worst of it was, he seemed to get
a lot of pleasure in his wicked plans. Now right down in his heart he
knew that they were wicked plans, but he tried to make excuses to
himself.
"Hooty the Owl is a robber, " said