hat is
he throwing perfectly good corn out in the water for? He isn't planting
it, for this isn't the planting season. Besides, it wouldn't grow in the
water, anyway. It is a shame to waste nice corn like that. What is he
doing it for?"

Blacky flew over to a tree some distance away and alighted in the top
of it to watch the queer performance. You know Blacky has very keen eyes
and he can see a long distance. For a while the man continued to scatter
corn and Blacky continued to wonder what he was doing it for. At last
the man went away in a boat. Blacky watched him until he was out of
sight. Then he spread his wings and slowly flew back and forth just
above the rushes and wild rice, at the place where the man had been
scattering the corn. He could see some of the yellow grains on the
bottom. Presently he saw something else. "Ha!" exclaimed Blacky.

CHAPTER XVIII: Blacky Becomes Very Suspicious

Of things you do not understand,
Beware!
They may be wholly harmless but--
Beware!
You'll find the older that you grow
That only things and folks you know
Are fully to be trusted, so
Beware!
--Blacky the Crow.

That is one of Blacky's wise sayings, and he lives up to it. It is one
reason why he has come to be regarded by all his neighbors as one of the
smartest of all who live in the Green Forest and on the Green Meadow. He
seldom gets into any real trouble because he first makes sure there
is no trouble to get into. When he discovers something he does not
understand, he is at once distrustful of it.

As he watched a man scattering yellow corn in the water from the shore
of the Big River he at once became suspicious. He couldn't understand
why a man should throw good corn among the rushes and wild rice in the
water, and because he couldn't understand, he at once began to suspect
that it was for no good purpose. When the man left in a boat, Blacky
slowly flew over the rushes where the man had thrown the corn, and
presently his sharp eyes made a discovery that caused him to exclaim
right out.

What was it Blacky had discovered? Only a few feathers. No one with eyes
less sharp than Blacky's would have noticed them. And few would have
given them a thought if they had noticed them. But Blacky knew right
away that those were feathers from a Duck. He knew that a Duck, or
perhaps a flock of Ducks, had been resting or feeding in there among
those rushes, and that in moving about they