No greater happiness is won
Than through a deed for others done.
— Blacky the Crow.
Blacky sat in the top of a tree near the bank of the
Big River and couldn’t make up his mind what
to do. He wanted to get home to the big, thick
hemlock-tree in the Green Forest before dusk, for Blacky
is afraid of the dark. That is, he is afraid
to be out after dark.
“Go along home,” said a voice inside him,
“there is hardly time now for you to get there
before the Black Shadows arrive.
Don’t waste any more time here. What may
happen to those silly Ducks is no business of yours,
and there is nothing you can do, anyway. Go
along home.”
“Wait a few minutes,” said another little
voice down inside him. “Don’t be
a coward. You ought to warn Dusky the Black Duck
and his flock that a hunter with a terrible gun is
waiting for them. Is it true that it is no business
of yours what happens to those Ducks? Think again,
Blacky; think again. It is the duty of each one
who sees a common danger to warn his neighbors.
If something dreadful should happen to Dusky because
you were afraid of the dark, you never would be comfortable
in your own mind. Stay a little while and keep
watch.”
Not five minutes later Blacky saw something that made
him, oh, so glad he had kept watch. It was a
swiftly moving black line just above the water far
down the Big River, and it was coming up. He
knew what that black line was. He looked over
at the hunter hiding behind some bushes close to the
edge of the water. The hunter was crouching
with his terrible gun in his hands and was peeping
over the bushes, watching that black line. He,
too, knew what it was. It was a flock of Ducks
flying.
Blacky was all ashake again, but this time it wasn’t
with fear of being caught away from home in the dark;
it was with excitement. He knew that those Ducks
had become so eager for more of that corn, that delicious
yellow corn which every night for a week they had
found scattered in the rushes just in front of the
place where that hunter was now hiding, that they
couldn’t wait for the coming of the Black Shadows.
They were so sure there was no danger that they were
coming in to eat without waiting for the Black Shadows,
as they usually did. And Blacky was glad.
Perhaps now he could give them warning.
Up the middle of the Big River, flying just above
the water, swept the flock with Dusky at its head.
How swiftly they flew, those nine big birds!
Blacky envied them their swift wings. On past
the hidden hunter but far out over the Big River they
swept. For just a minute Blacky thought they
were going on up the river and not coming in to eat,
after all. Then they turned toward the other
shore, swept around in a circle and headed straight
in toward that hidden hunter. Blacky glanced
at him and saw that he was ready to shoot.
