Pretty soon the train came thundering up the track.
And as soon as it reached him Mr. Crow started to
race with it. He had no trouble in beating it,
as he always did. And then he did something he
had never done before. As soon as he had passed
the engine he swooped down and flew right across the
track in front of it.
All at once the train set up a terrible noise.
It seemed to Mr. Crow that it ground its teeth.
And it came to a sudden stop, hissing as if it were
very angry.
Old Mr. Crow was the least bit startled. He alighted
in the top of a tall elm. And while he watched,
two men jumped down from the engine and walked along
the track for a while.
Then they crawled back into the engine; and the train
went slowly on again.
“That’s queer!” said Mr. Crow to
himself. “I never saw that happen before.
It looks to me as if the train was pretty angry because
I beat it. And if that’s the case, I’m
coming back here to-morrow at the same hour and race
the train again.”
You can see just from that that Mr. Crow was something
of a tease. All his life he had teased his neighbors.
And now he felt more important than ever, because
he thought he had found a way to tease a railroad train.
THE GAME OF CHECKERS
Mr. Crow told all his neighbors that he had made the
train angry with him. And he invited everyone
to come down to the village with him the following
day, to enjoy the sport.
“I’m going to race the train again,”
Mr. Crow explained. “And I shall fly right
in front of it, too—just as I did to-day.
You’ll see what a fuss it will make. And
if you don’t say it’s a good joke, I’ll
never wear a checkered red coat again.”
The next day Jasper Jay invited Mr. Crow to take part
in a game of checkers. Whenever anybody in the
neighborhood wanted to play checkers, he had to ask
Mr. Crow, on account of having to use his checkered
red coat for the board.
Mr. Crow accepted the invitation.
“But I shall have to stop at exactly sixteen
minutes past two,” he said. “The
train starts from the village at half past two sharp;
and I don’t want to be late.”
“Very well!” Jasper Jay agreed. “I
shall want to stop then myself, because I’m
coming along with you to see the fun.”
They had played twenty-seven games of checkers.
And they were in the midst of the twenty-eighth when
Mr. Crow suddenly cocked his eye at the sun.
“Goodness!” he exclaimed, springing up
quickly. “It’s fifteen and a half
minutes after two; and I shall have to be starting
for the village.” He reached for his checkered
red coat, which was spread upon the ground between
them.
“Wait a moment!” Jasper Jay cried.
“I’d suggest your leaving your coat right
where it is. Then we can come back to our game
after we’ve had our fun with the train.
I’m going to win the game, so it’s hardly
fair not to finish it.”
