MR. CROW"S PLAN
Yes! Old Mr. Crow had made up his mind about something. After Jasper Jay and Frisky Squirrel and Fatty c.o.o.n had come and crouched under his umbrella, and Christopher Crane had perched himself on top of it, and Mr.
Crow had fallen off the fence, the old gentleman decided that he would take no more chances. The next time it rained he knew exactly what he was going to do.
He said nothing to anyone about his plan. It was a good one--Mr. Crow was sure of that. And he could hardly wait for the next shower, he was so eager to give his scheme a trial. He hoped that there would be a big storm--not merely a quick shower, which would be over before he had had time to enjoy it.
At last the storm came. And for once Mr. Crow was not disappointed. It was the sort of storm that is worth waiting for. The wind had blown hard all day. And the sky had grown almost as black as night. And old Mr. Crow was watching in his house, with his umbrella grasped tight in his hands, waiting for the rain.
When the rain began, it did not fall in a gentle patter. It came with a rush and a roar, driven in white sheets before a mighty wind.
"This is great!" Mr. Crow cried aloud, as he stepped upon a limb outside his house and spread his umbrella.
Now, this is what he had decided to do: He had determined that the very next time it rained he would take his umbrella and fly up into the sky, where he would not be annoyed by anybody coming along to share his shelter with him.
For a moment Mr. Crow balanced himself on the limb. And the next moment, he had jumped. Afterward, he could never remember exactly how it all happened. Everything seemed like a bad dream to old Mr. Crow--such as he sometimes had after eating too heartily of corn.
He felt himself swept up into the sky faster than he had flown for years.
He was pitched and tossed about; and in no time at all he was drenched with water--for the cold rain pelted him as much as it pleased. He could only cling to the handle of his umbrella. And so he sailed away, swaying this way and that as the wind caught him, and always climbing higher and higher into the sky.
He pa.s.sed the top of Blue Mountain almost before he knew it. Looking down, he could see Mrs. Eagle on her nest; and she seemed to be in a flutter of excitement, too. She was frightened; and it was no wonder.
For she thought the umbrella was a monstrous bird, coming to s.n.a.t.c.h her children away from her.
In a few minutes more Mr. Crow had crossed another mountain. He was sailing away from home like a kite that has broken its string. And he was rising so high in the air that he was beginning to grow uneasy. He began to wonder what he had better do.
Of course, there was one thing he didn"t have to worry about--and that was _falling_. But he did want to go home.
You might suppose that he would have done that long before. But the trouble was, he didn"t want to lose his umbrella. He thought a great deal of it; and he didn"t know where he could get another. (You must not forget that it was the only umbrella in Pleasant Valley.)
Old Mr. Crow had a hard time deciding just what to do. First, he thought he would let go of the umbrella. Then he thought he wouldn"t. Next, he thought he would. And after that he thought he wouldn"t, again.
Perhaps he would still be changing his mind like that if something hadn"t happened. Anyhow, all at once the umbrella turned inside out. And Mr.
Crow began to fall.
But he didn"t fall far. For as soon as he realized what was going on he let go of his umbrella-handle, spread his wings, and soared down to the ground.
He made no attempt to find his way home until the next day, but spent the night in an evergreen grove. And he didn"t feel as badly about losing his umbrella as you would have thought, for he said that ever since he had owned it he had caught a wetting when it rained. And since that was the case, he was better off without an umbrella, anyhow.
XII
A RACE WITH THE TRAIN
Old Mr. Crow was fond of gay clothes. Perhaps it was because he was so black that he always chose bright colors. Anyhow, so long as he could wear a bright red coat and a yellow necktie--or a bright red necktie and a yellow coat--he was generally quite happy.
All his neighbors knew who he was as far as they could see him. No matter if they caught only a flash of yellow or of red, they were pretty safe in saying, "There goes old Mr. Crow!"
Well, it happened that during the summers that he spent in Pleasant Valley Mr. Crow sometimes went on excursions.
"It"s so dull here!" he would often say. "I like to see things _happen_, once in a while." And that was the reason why he was often to be seen flying far down to the other end of the valley, over the village. There were many interesting sights there.
What Mr. 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 pa.s.s. He had heard it snorting at the station and he knew it was about to start.
Pretty soon the train came thundering up the track. And as soon as it reached him Mr. Crow started to race with it. He had no trouble in beating it, as he always did. And then he did something he had never done before. As soon as he had pa.s.sed the engine he swooped down and flew right across the track in front of it.
All at once the train set up a terrible noise. It seemed to Mr. Crow that it ground its teeth. And it came to a sudden stop, hissing as if it were very angry.
Old Mr. Crow was the least bit startled. He alighted in the top of a tall elm. And while he watched, two men jumped down from the engine and walked along the track for a while.
Then they crawled back into the engine; and the train went slowly on again.
"That"s queer!" said Mr. Crow to himself. "I never saw that happen before. It looks to me as if the train was pretty angry because I beat it. And if that"s the case, I"m coming back here to-morrow at the same hour and race the train again."
You can see just from that that Mr. Crow was something of a tease. All his life he had teased his neighbors. And now he felt more important than ever, because he thought he had found a way to tease a railroad train.
XIII
THE GAME OF CHECKERS
Mr. Crow told all his neighbors that he had made the train angry with him. And he invited everyone to come down to the village with him the following day, to enjoy the sport.
"I"m going to race the train again," Mr. Crow explained. "And I shall fly right in front of it, too--just as I did to-day. You"ll see what a fuss it will make. And if you don"t say it"s a good joke, I"ll never wear a checkered red coat again."
The next day Jasper Jay invited Mr. Crow to take part in a game of checkers. Whenever anybody in the neighborhood wanted to play checkers, he had to ask Mr. Crow, on account of having to use his checkered red coat for the board.
Mr. Crow accepted the invitation.
"But I shall have to stop at exactly sixteen minutes past two," he said.
"The train starts from the village at half past two sharp; and I don"t want to be late."
"Very well!" Jasper Jay agreed. "I shall want to stop then myself, because I"m coming along with you to see the fun."
They had played twenty-seven games of checkers. And they were in the midst of the twenty-eighth when Mr. Crow suddenly c.o.c.ked his eye at the sun.
"Goodness!" he exclaimed, springing up quickly. "It"s fifteen and a half minutes after two; and I shall have to be starting for the village." He reached for his checkered red coat, which was spread upon the ground between them.