Mr. Crow

“ At that, everybody except Mr. Crow began to laugh, too. But Mr. Crow coughed; and his voice was hoarser than, ever as he said to Christopher Crane:
"I'm wet as I can be. And I've caught a terrible cold. You're a water-bird; and you don't mind a wetting. But for one of my age it's very dangerous."
Then he started homeward. Though it was still raining, he tucked his umbrella under his wing, for he was afraid those rude fellows would crowd under it again.
And before he had reached his house Mr. Crow had made up his mind about something. ”

“ Crow liked most of all was to watch the trains puffing along the railroad, which ran close to the river in that part of Pleasant Valley.
Sometimes he flew directly over the trains and raced with them. He often claimed that they were always trying to beat him. "But they can't do it," he boasted.
At last there came a day when something happened that made Mr. Crow feel prouder than ever. He had gone down to the village, wearing his bright red coat. And a little way beyond the furthest house he perched in a tree by the side of the railroad and waited for the train to pass. ”

“ Crow was sitting. Then, dropping nimbly from limb to limb, with the help of his hands and his feet and his tail, he stopped at last when he had reached Mr. Crow's level. [Pg 9]
One thing was certain. The stranger was bold as brass. He looked Mr. Crow up and down. And then he said:
"You're a gay old bird! What's your name?"
Now, no doubt some people would have been angry. But Mr. Crow rather liked to be called gay, because he couldn't help looking solemn. And most people knew he was very old. And everybody was aware he was a bird. ”

“ Crow stopped sulking. He was very angry with Farmer Green for placing the giant in the cornfield. And he told his friends that he had about made up his mind he would move to some other neighborhood.
"Farmer Green will be sorry after I'm gone," he remarked. "He'll miss me when he finds that his crops are being eaten by mildreds of insects." Whether he meant millions or hundreds it would be hard to say. You see, Mr. Crow was not good at arithmetic. He always had trouble counting higher than ten. ”

“ Crow as he spoke, most of the company could not help thinking that the old gentleman was the thief, after all. And when he flew into a rage they felt quite sure he was guilty.
"We always knew Mr. Crow was an old rascal!" they exclaimed.
And so Mr. Crow took himself off. But he soon recovered his good spirits. He was used to being called names. And to tell the truth, he had taken a few eggs now and then—when he thought no one was watching. ”

“ Crow to do the evening dishes; and that evening Mr. 'Coon and Mr. 'Possum [78] pitched in and helped him, and they got through in a jiffy and began to move.
Mr. Crow said he knew his own things, and that he wouldn't take any that belonged to the Missing One, because they had mostly come from her mother; and, besides, they would be a sad reminder, and didn't seem to go with the kind of a place they had planned to have. He said if they didn't have enough things they could borrow a few from Mr. Man when Mr. Man went away and left his windows open, and that they wouldn't need much to begin with. ”

“ He had daubed so much tar on his foot, in Farmer Green's cornfield, that the soft earth had stuck to it in a big ball.
Mr. Crow recovered his spirits at last. And neither he nor Aunt Polly Woodchuck ever discovered that he never had gout at all. He forgave her, at last, for having cured his foot too quickly, for the affair gave him something to talk about for a long time afterward. He never tired of telling his friends about the trouble he had had.
But many of the feathered folk in Pleasant Valley grew very weary of the tale before they heard the last of it. ”

“ Crow was angry with Jasper Jay. And he refused to finish the game of checkers with him.
XV MR. CROW'S NEW COAT When Mr. Crow decided, one fall, that he would stay in Pleasant Valley during the winter, instead of going South, he remembered at once that he would need a thick overcoat.
That was when he went to Mr. Frog's tailor's shop, for Mr. Frog, you know, was a tailor.
"I want you to make me a warm overcoat." Mr. Crow told him. "Can you do it?"
"Certainly!" said Mr. Frog. "You've come to the right place. Everybody says that I'm the best tailor in Pleasant Valley." ”

“ Bunny Rabbit that he had been telling a story, for, after gazing pensively at the ferns a few seconds, he continued meditatively, as if giving words to his thoughts rather than speaking to any one:
"Never again, not if I live to be as old as an elephant, and Mr. Crow declares that elephants stay and stay alive till the hills grow to be mountains, will I ever be so foolish as to take part in any silly thing simply because of being afraid to say that I don't dare stick my nose in where it doesn't belong. ”

“ But he did not like to admit it. “He’s a great credit to the neighborhood,” said old Mr. Crow. “And you’d better let him alone, if you should happen to find him, because he’s solid gold, you know. And if you flew 83 at him and tried to peck him, just as likely as not you’d break your bill on him, he’s so hard.” ”

“ 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.
XXI 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. ”

“ Crow who was making it, for he never could make a sound like that, no matter what had happened to his works.
Mr. Crow came down a good deal faster than he went up, and in about five seconds more landed right among them, and they saw he was scared.
"Oh," he gasped, "we are all lost! The biggest bird in the world is coming to devour us! I saw it—it is making that terrible noise! It is as big as Mr. Man's house! It is as big as his yard! It is as big as the Big Deep Woods!" ”

“ Just then the ice cream was brought in and Mr. Crow espied the new tin spoons and his eyes shone with longing to have one or two or three or as many as he could get, but how could he get them? If only he could scare them and make them all run he would get them easy enough.
Then an idea came to Mr. Crow and he flew away. "I'll have those spoons before I sleep again to-night, and get my revenge, too, or my name is not James Crow," he said, and out of the woods he went.
Mr. Crow flew straight for Mr. Man's farm, and you know crows can fly very straight, it is said. ”

“ Crow flew swiftly to the farm-yard. It happened that there was nobody about. And, luckily, Mr. Crow found enough corn scattered near the door of the corn-crib to furnish him with a good dinner.
The next morning, as soon as it began to grow light (for Mr. Crow was an early riser) , he felt in his left-hand pocket once more. And he pulled out an elderberry.
"That won't do!" he said. "It's too early in the season for elderberries." But he ate the sample—though he found it rather dry, for it was a last year's berry. And then he fished a bird's egg out of the same pocket. "My favorite breakfast!" ”

“ They said that they knew all the time that the stranger was a fraud.
"Where is he?" someone inquired. "Let's fix him!"
But when they turned to look for the stranger they couldn't find him anywhere. He had vanished. Though Mr. Crow and his friends searched far and wide for the bold, bad fellow, their efforts were all in vain. During the bustle that had followed Mr. Crow's short speech the newcomer had quietly made his escape. And no doubt it was just as well for him that he left the meeting when he did. ”

“ Farmer Green would have liked to do that, because then he might have caught old Mr. Crow. As it happened, he did catch sight of Mr. Crow the very first day he began to plant his corn.
"I declare—there's that old crow again!" he exclaimed. "He's come back to bother me once more. But maybe I'm smarter than he thinks!"
Mr. Crow knew better than to come too near the men who were working in the cornfield. He just sat on the fence on the further side of the road and watched them for a while. And he was getting hungrier every minute. But he had no chance to scratch up any corn that day. ”

“ Crow. "I see you need some new shoes. And you've made no mistake in coming here for them."
"I hope not," Mr. Crow responded gruffly. He went inside the store and sat down. And Jimmy Rabbit knelt before him and measured one of his feet.
Now, Mr. Crow had enormous feet. Big feet had always run—or walked—in his family. And though he couldn't any more help the size of his feet than the size of his bill, old Mr. Crow was very touchy in respect to them. He grew angry at once. ”

“ He looked over quick to Mr. 'Possum's plate, and what he saw there made him sicker yet. For there lay a half of the P. C. pie, and Mr. Crow saw with one look that it was just as fine a chicken pie as ever came out of an oven.
Mr. 'Coon had a piece on his plate, too, and they were saying what a fine pie it was, and Mr. Turtle and Mr. Rabbit said so, too, and that Mr. Crow was certainly the finest cook in those parts. [Pg 161]
THE STORY OF THE C. X. PIE CONTINUED WHAT HAPPENS TO MR. CROW AND HIS PIE
Poor Mr. Crow! You never saw anybody look as sickly and foolish as he did. ”

“ Mr. Crow said with a grin. "I supposed you'd like to have the neighbors know you were wearing something new."
"Well, I don't!" she retorted. "It's bad enough to have a poke put on my neck, at my age, without having the news spread all through Pleasant Valley."
"You can thank yourself for the fix you're in," Mr. Crow told her bluntly. [Pg 53] "At your age you should have known better than to jump fences."
"How would you like it if you had to stay in this pasture day after day?" the Muley Cow asked him.
Mr. Crow hemmed and hawed.
"How would you like it if you couldn't go into the cornfield?" ”

“ Mr. Crow's best friends sometimes remarked that people did not understand him. They said that he helped Farmer Green more than he injured him, for he did a great deal in the way of eating beetles, cutworms and grasshoppers, as well as many other insects that tried to destroy Farmer Green's crops. So you see he had his good points, as well as his bad ones.
For a number of years Mr. Crow had spent each summer in Pleasant Valley, under the shadow of Blue Mountain. He usually arrived from the South in March and left in October. ”

“ Crow was hungry as a bear by the time he reached his house. And the first thing he did was to feel in his left-hand pocket. He drew forth a kernel of corn.
"Good!" he cried. "That's exactly what I'd like for my dinner. And if Farmer Green hadn't tarred his corn before planting it I know exactly where I'd go." Then he thought deeply for a few minutes. "I'll go over to the corn-crib and see if I can't find some corn on the ground!" he exclaimed a little later. While he was thinking he ate the sample of corn, without once noticing what he did. ”

“ Crow was out of hearing, the tailor thrust his head through the doorway and called to the departing Mr. Crow.
"I told you—" said Mr. Frog—"I told you thirteen was an unlucky number."
XIX THE SHOE-STORE "Dear me!" old Mr. Crow exclaimed one day. "I see I shall have to get some new shoes. I've had these only about ten years and they're worn through already. The trouble is, I don't know where to buy any more." He was talking to his cousin, Jasper Jay.
"I can tell you," said Jasper. "That Rabbit boy—the one they call Jimmy—has a shoe-store. You know he's always trying something new. ”

“ Crow by the nape of his neck. And how they did shake the old thief! They did not stop to talk to him.
"He is not worth the breath we should waste," said Mr. Coon, "and I feel sure this place is not a place that agrees with Mr. Crow's health. He will move away, I am sure, where the climate will better agree with him."
The next day there was a to-let sign on the house where Mr. Crow had once lived, and the bachelors all met that night to discuss the breaking up of the party and to hear about the tin spoons and how they were found. ”

“ Crow, just as it is in Blacky to-day, and he was smart too. There wasn't anybody smarter than old Mr. Crow. It's from him that Blacky gets his smartness. It didn't take him long to discover that no one else had such a wonderful tongue. It was even more wonderful than the tongue of old Mr. Mocker the Mocking Bird. Mr. Mocker could imitate the songs of other birds, but old Mr. Crow could imitate anybody, as I have said. He puzzled over it a good deal himself for a while. He couldn't understand how he could make any sound he pleased, while his neighbors could make only a few special sounds. ”

“ Jimmy Rabbit looked up at him mildly.
"I just wanted to find out how small your feet are," he explained politely enough. "Sometimes people come here with feet so small that I can't fit them. And when I looked at yours I was afraid that might be the case."
"Oh!" said Mr. Crow. The answer pleased him. "Show me the best pair of shoes you have," he ordered.
So Jimmy Rabbit began to search his shelves. To tell the truth, he was puzzled. He had no shoes big enough for Mr. Crow. But he did not dare tell the old gentleman that, because he knew Mr. Crow would be very angry. ”

“ Mr. Crow often croaked. "As a flier he couldn't even beat crazy Benjamin Bat."
It was the general opinion that Benjamin Bat could make a longer journey between two points than anybody else in Pleasant Valley. And there were some that disputed Mr. Crow's statement. Jasper Jay even went out of his way to tell Mr. Crow that he had heard of his remark, and that he was mistaken. And they had such a wrangle that they annoyed Mr. Hermit Thrush, way over on the other side of Cedar Swamp. Old Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay were cousins. And everybody knows that there is nothing worse than a cousinly quarrel. ”