Blacky the Crow. Thornton W. Burgess

      

      BLACKY THE CROW

      By THORNTON W. BURGESS

      Blacky the Crow

      By Thornton W. Burgess

      Illustrated by Harrison Cady

      Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-7117-0

      eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-7118-7

      This edition copyright © 2020. Digireads.com Publishing.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

      Cover Image: a detail of an illustration by Harrison Cady, published by Little, Brown and Company, Boston, c. 1922.

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      CONTENTS

       I. BLACKY THE CROW MAKES A DISCOVERY

       II. BLACKY MAKES SURE

       III. BLACKY FINDS OUT WHO OWNS THE EGGS

       IV. THE CUNNING OF BLACKY

       V. BLACKY CALLS HIS FRIENDS

       VI. HOOTY THE OWL DOESN’T STAY STILL

       VII. BLACKY TRIES ANOTHER PLAN

       VIII. HOOTY COMES TO MRS. HOOTY’S AID

       IX: BLACKY THINKS OF FARMER BROWN’S BOY

       X: FARMER BROWN’S BOY AND HOOTY

       XI. FARMER BROWN’S BOY IS TEMPTED

       XII. A TREE-TOP BATTLE

       XIII. BLACKY HAS A CHANGE OF HEART

       XIV. BLACKY MAKES A CALL

       XV. BLACKY DOES A LITTLE LOOKING ABOUT

       XVI. BLACKY FINDS OTHER SIGNS

       XVII. BLACKY WATCHES A QUEER PERFORMANCE

       XVIII. BLACKY BECOMES VERY SUSPICIOUS

       XIX: BLACKY MAKES MORE DISCOVERIES

       XX: BLACKY DROPS A HINT

       XXI. AT LAST BLACKY IS SURE

       XXII. BLACKY GOES HOME HAPPY

       XXIII. BLACKY CALLS FARMER BROWN’S BOY

       XXIV. FARMER BROWN’S BOY DOES SOME THINKING

       XXV. BLACKY GETS A DREADFUL SHOCK

       XXVI. WHY THE HUNTER GOT NO DUCKS

       XXVII. THE HUNTER GIVES UP

       XXVIII. BLACKY HAS A TALK WITH DUSKY THE BLACK DUCK

       XXIX: BLACKY DISCOVERS AN EGG

       XXX: BLACKY SCREWS UP HIS COURAGE

       XXXI. AN EGG THAT WOULDN’T BEHAVE

       XXXII. WHAT BLACKY DID WITH THE STOLEN EGG

       BIOGRAPHICAL AFTERWORD

      I. Blacky The Crow Makes A Discovery

      Blacky the Crow is always watching for things not intended for his sharp eyes. The result is that he gets into no end of trouble which he could avoid. In this respect he is just like his cousin, Sammy Jay. Between them they see a great deal with which they have no business and which it would be better for them not to see.

      Now Blacky the Crow finds it no easy matter to pick up a living when snow covers the Green Meadows and the Green Forest, and ice binds the Big River and the Smiling Pool. He has to use his sharp eyes for all they are worth in order to find enough to fill his stomach, and he will eat anything in the way of food that he can swallow. Often he travels long distances looking for food, but at night he always comes back to the same place in the Green Forest, to sleep in company with others of his family.

      Blacky dearly loves company, particularly at night, and about the time jolly, round, red Mr. Sun is beginning to think about his bed behind the Purple Hills, you will find Blacky heading for a certain part of the Green Forest where he knows he will have neighbors of his own kind. Peter Rabbit says that it is because Blacky’s conscience troubles him so that he doesn’t dare sleep alone, but Happy Jack Squirrel says that Blacky hasn’t any conscience. You can believe just which you please, though I suspect that neither of them really knows.

      As I have said, Blacky is quite a traveler at this time of year, and sometimes his search for food takes him to out-of-the-way places. One day toward the very last of winter, the notion entered his black head that he would have a look in a certain lonesome corner of the Green Forest where once upon a time Redtail the Hawk had lived. Blacky knew well enough that Redtail wasn’t there now; he had gone south in the fell and wouldn’t be back until he was sure that Mistress Spring had arrived on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest.

      Like the black imp he is, Blacky flew over the tree-tops, his sharp eyes watching for something interesting below. Presently he saw ahead of him the old nest of Red-tail. He knew all about that nest. He had visited it before when Red-tail was away. Still it might be worth another