But Hooty isn’t stupid. Not a bit of it.
The minute he found out that Blacky and his friends
had discovered him, he thought of Mrs. Hooty and the
two precious eggs in the old nest of Redtail the Hawk
close by.
“Mrs. Hooty mustn’t be disturbed, " thought
he. “That will never do at all.
I must lead these black rascals away where they won’t
discover Mrs. Hooty. I certainly must.”
So he spread his broad wings and blundered away among
the trees a little way. He didn’t fly
far because the instant he started to fly that whole
noisy crew with the exception of Blacky were after
him. Because he couldn’t use his claws
or bill while flying, they grew bold enough to pull
a few feathers out of his back. So he flew only
a little way to a thick hemlock-tree, where it wasn’t
easy for the Crows to get at him, and where the light
didn’t hurt his eyes so much. There he
rested a few minutes and then did the same thing over
again. He meant to lead those bothersome Crows
into the darkest part of the Green Forest and there
— well, he could see better there, and
it might be that one of them would be careless enough
to come within reach. No, Hooty wasn’t
stupid. Certainly not.
Blacky awoke to that fact as he sat in the top of
a tall pine-tree silently watching. He could
see Mrs. Hooty on the nest, and as the noise of Hooty’s
tormentors sounded from farther and farther away,
she settled herself more comfortably and closed her
eyes. Blacky could imagine that she was smiling
to herself. It was clear that she had no intention
of going to help Hooty. His splendid plan had
failed just because stupid Hooty, who wasn’t
stupid at all, had flown away when he ought to have
sat still. It was very provoking.
When one plan fails, just try another;
Declare you’ll win some way
or other.
People who succeed are those who do not give up because
they fail the first time they try. They are
the ones who, as soon as one plan fails, get busy
right away and think of another plan and try that.
If the thing they are trying to do is a good thing,
sooner or later they succeed. If they are trying
to do a wrong thing, very likely all their plans fail,
as they should.
Now Blacky the Crow knows all about the value of trying
and trying. He isn’t easily discouraged.
Sometimes it is a pity that he isn’t, because
he plans so much mischief. But the fact remains
that he isn’t, and he tries and tries until
he cannot think of another plan and just has to give
up. When he invited all his relatives to join
him in tormenting Hooty the Owl, he thought he had
a plan that just couldn’t fail. He felt
sure that Mrs. Hooty would leave her nest and help
Hooty try to drive away his tormentors. But Mrs.
Hooty didn’t do anything of the kind, because
Hooty was smart enough and thoughtful enough to lead
his tormentors away from the nest into the darkest
part of the Green Forest where their noise wouldn’t
bother Mrs. Hooty. So she just settled herself
more comfortably than ever on those eggs which Blacky
had hoped she would give him a chance to steal, and
his fine plan was quite upset.
