believe he did it out of the kindness of his heart.
If it was Farmer Brown’s boy I would know that
all is well; that he was thinking of hungry Ducks,
with few places where they can feed in safety, as
they make the long journey from the Far North to the
Sunny South. But it wasn’t Farmer Brown’s
boy. I don’t like the looks of it.
I don’t indeed. I’ll keep watch
of this place and see what happens.”
All the way to his favorite perch in a certain big
hemlock-tree in the Green Forest, Blacky kept thinking
about that corn and the man who had seemed to be generous
with it, and the more he thought, the more suspicious
he became. He didn’t like the looks of
it at all.
“I’ll warn the Quacks to keep away from
there. I’ll do it the very first thing
in the morning,” he muttered, as he prepared
to go to sleep. “If they have any sense
at all, they will stay in the pond of Paddy the Beaver.
But if they should go over to the Big River, they
would be almost sure to find that corn, and if they
should once find it, they would keep going back for
more. It may be all right, but I don’t
like the looks of it.”
And still full of suspicions, Blacky went to sleep.
Little things you fail to see
May important prove to be.
— Blacky the Crow.
One of the secrets of Blacky’s success in life
is the fact that he never fails to take note of little
things. Long ago he learned that little things
which in themselves seem harmless and not worth noticing
may together prove the most important things in life.
So, no matter how unimportant a thing may appear,
Blacky examines it closely with those sharp eyes of
his and remembers it.
The very first thing Blacky did, as soon as he was
awake the morning after he discovered the man scattering
corn in the rushes at a certain place on the edge
of the Big River, was to fly over to the pond of Paddy
the Beaver and again warn Mr. and Mrs. Quack to keep
away from the Big River, if they and their six children
would remain safe. Then he got some breakfast.
He ate it in a hurry and flew straight over to the
Big River to the place where he had seen that yellow
corn scattered.
Blacky wasn’t wholly surprised to find Dusky
the Black Duck, own cousin to Mr. and Mrs. Quack the
Mallard Ducks, with a number of his relatives in among
the rushes and wild rice at the very place where that
corn had been scattered. They seemed quite contented
and in the best of spirits. Blacky guessed why.
Not a single grain of that yellow corn could Blacky
see. He knew the ways of Dusky and his relatives.
He knew that they must have come in there just at
dusk the night before and at once had found that corn.
He knew that they would remain hiding there until
frightened out, and that then they would spend the
day in some little pond where they would not be likely
to be disturbed or where at least no danger could approach
them without being seen in plenty of time. There
they would rest all day, and when the Black Shadows
came creeping out from the Purple Hills, they would
return to that place on the Big River to feed, for
that is the time when they like best to hunt for their
food.
