“Ah!” said Jimmy Rabbit. “Quite
true! You’ll be the first in Pleasant Valley,
Mr. Crow. You’ll set the fashion, instead
of following it. Better be first than last, you
know!”
Old Mr. Crow agreed to that. So he let Jimmy
Rabbit cut as many holes in the shoes as he had toes—that
made four holes in each shoe.
And then Mr. Crow thrust his toes through the holes.
To his great delight he could walk with ease and comfort.
And he was about to leave the store when Jimmy Rabbit
stopped him.
“Haven’t you forgotten something?”
he asked.
“I don’t think so,” Mr. Crow replied.
“Yes, you have!” Jimmy Rabbit insisted.
“You’ve forgotten your bill!”
Mr. Crow looked at him in amazement. And then
he felt of his face.
“None of your tricks, young man!” he cried.
“My bill is right where it belongs. How
could I forget it, I should like to know?”
“You don’t understand,” said Jimmy
Rabbit. “What I mean is this: You
haven’t paid me for the shoes.”
“Oh!” said Mr. Crow. And he looked
away quickly. “Well, you may keep my old
shoes. I’m sure that’s a fair exchange.”
And he pretended to be surprised when Jimmy Rabbit
did not agree with him.
“Your old shoes are full of holes,” Jimmy
objected. “I don’t want them.”
And there Mr. Crow had him.
“These shoes I have on are full of holes, too,”
he declared. “And if one hole isn’t
just as good as another, then I may as well go back
to school again.” And with that he stalked
angrily away.
As it happened, old Mr. Crow had never been to school
in his life. But he thought the remark sounded
well. And it seemed to keep Jimmy Rabbit quiet.
He couldn’t think of a thing to say until long
after Mr. Crow had gone.
And then it was too late.
THE CROW CAUCUS
“Where are all those crows going?” Johnnie
Green asked his father one evening. He pointed
to a long line of big black birds that straggled across
the sky. They came from across the valley.
And they were travelling fast toward the pine woods
near the foot of Blue Mountain. “They seem
to be in a hurry,” said Johnnie Green.
His father took one look at the procession and laughed.
“They’re going to a crow caucus, I guess,”
he answered.
And then Johnnie wanted to know what a caucus was.
He asked so many other questions, too, that Farmer
Green didn’t succeed in answering them all until
they had almost finished their supper.
Now, it was the custom of old Mr. Crow and many of
his dusky friends to gather at sunset in the pine
woods and hold a meeting. That was what
Farmer Green meant when he said they were going to
a caucus. And if he could have been there
himself he would have been astonished at the things
he would have heard.
But for some reason he was never invited to attend
one of those twilight meetings. Perhaps it was
because disagreeable remarks were sometimes made about
Farmer Green!
