hadows, as they usually did. And Blacky was glad. Perhaps
now he could give them warning.

Up the middle of the Big River, flying just above the water, swept the
flock with Dusky at its head. How swiftly they flew, those nine big
birds! Blacky envied them their swift wings. On past the hidden hunter
but far out over the Big River they swept. For just a minute Blacky
thought they were going on up the river and not coming in to eat, after
all. Then they turned toward the other shore, swept around in a circle
and headed straight in toward that hidden hunter. Blacky glanced at him
and saw that he was ready to shoot.

Almost without thinking, Blacky spread his wings and started out from
that tree. "Caw, caw, caw, caw, caw!" he shrieked at the top of his
lungs. "Caw, caw, caw, caw, caw!" It was his danger cry that everybody
on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest knows.

Instantly Dusky turned and began to climb up, up, up, the other Ducks
following him until, as they passed over the hidden hunter, they were so
high it was useless for him to shoot. He did put up his gun and aim at
them, but he didn't shoot. You see, he didn't want to frighten them so
that they would not return. Then the flock turned and started off in
the direction from which they had come, and in a few minutes they were
merely a black line disappearing far down the Big River.

Blacky headed straight for the Green Forest, chuckling as he flew. He
knew that those Ducks would not return until after dark. He had saved
them this time, and he was so happy he didn't even notice the Black
Shadows. And the hunter stood up and shook his fist at Blacky the Crow.

CHAPTER XXIII: Blacky Calls Farmer Brown's Boy

Blacky awoke in the best of spirits. Late the afternoon before he had
saved Dusky the Black Duck and his flock from a hunter with a terrible
gun. He wasn't quite sure whether he was most happy in having saved
those Ducks by warning them just in time, or in having spoiled the plans
of that hunter. He hates a hunter with a terrible gun, does Blacky. For
that matter, so do all the little people of the Green Forest and the
Green Meadows.

So Blacky started out for his breakfast in high spirits. After
breakfast, he flew over to the Big River to see if Dusky the Black Duck
was feeding in the rushes along the shore. Dusky wasn't, and Blacky
guessed that he and his flock had been so frightened by that warning
that they had kept away from there the night b