He had
got to have time to get his wits together. Whoever had laid those eggs
was big and strong. He felt sure of that. It must be some one a great
deal bigger than himself, and he was of no mind to get into trouble,
even for a dinner of fresh eggs. He must first find out whose they were;
then he would know better what to do. He felt sure that no one else knew
about them, and he knew that they couldn't run away. So he kept right on
flying until he reached a certain tall pine-tree where he could sit and
think without being disturbed.

"Eggs!" he muttered. "Real eggs! Now who under the sun can have moved
into Redtail's old house? And what can they mean by laying eggs before
Mistress Spring has even sent word that she has started? It's too much
for me. It certainly is too much for me."

CHAPTER III: Blacky Finds Out Who Owns The Eggs

Two big white eggs in a tumbledown nest, and snow and ice everywhere!
Did ever anybody hear of such a thing before?

"Wouldn't believe it, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes," muttered
Blacky the Crow. "Have to believe them. If I can't believe them, it's of
no use to try to believe anything in this world. As sure as I sit here,
that old nest has two eggs in it. Whoever laid them must be crazy to
start housekeeping at this time of year. I must find out whose eggs they
are and then--"

Blacky didn't finish, but there was a hungry look in his eyes that would
have told any who saw it, had there been any to see it, that he had
a use for those eggs. But there was none to see it, and he took the
greatest care that there should be none to see him when he once again
started for a certain lonesome corner of the Green Forest.

"First I'll make sure that the eggs are still there," thought he, and
flew high above the tree tops, so that as he passed over the tree in
which was the old nest of Red-tail the Hawk, he might look down into it.
To have seen him, you would never have guessed that he was looking for
anything in particular. He seemed to be just flying over on his way to
some distant place. If the eggs were still there, he meant to come back
and hide in the top of a near-by pine-tree to watch until he was sure
that he might safely steal those eggs, or to find out whose they were.

Blacky's heart beat fast with excitement as he drew near that old
tumble-down nest. Would those two big white eggs be there? Perhaps
there would be three! The very thought made him flap his wings a little
fas