keeping a small boy at
useful labor of any sort in the face of the attractions displayed by a
passing cloud, a blossoming shrub, or a bird singing on a tree-branch.

In spite of all this, however, David so evidently did his best to carry
out the "dos" and avoid the "don'ts," that at four o'clock that first
Monday he won from the stern but would-be-just Farmer Holly his freedom
for the rest of the day; and very gayly he set off for a walk. He went
without his violin, as there was the smell of rain in the air; but his
face and his step and the very swing of his arms were singing (to
David) the joyous song of the morning before. Even yet, in spite of the
vicissitudes of the day's work, the whole world, to David's homesick,
lonely little heart, was still caroling that blessed "You're wanted,
you're wanted, you're wanted!"

And then he saw the crow.

David knew crows. In his home on the mountain he had had several of
them for friends. He had learned to know and answer their calls. He had
learned to admire their wisdom and to respect their moods and tempers.
He loved to watch them. Especially he loved to see the great birds cut
through the air with a wide sweep of wings, so alive, so gloriously
free!

But this crow--

This crow was not cutting through the air with a wide sweep of wing. It
was in the middle of a cornfield, and it was rising and falling and
flopping about in a most extraordinary fashion. Very soon David,
running toward it, saw why. By a long leather strip it was fastened
securely to a stake in the ground.

"Oh, oh, oh!" exclaimed David, in sympathetic consternation. "Here, you
just wait a minute. I'll fix it."

With confident celerity David whipped out his jackknife to cut the
thong; but he found then that to "fix it" and to say he would "fix it"
were two different matters.

The crow did not seem to recognize in David a friend. He saw in him,
apparently, but another of the stone-throwing, gun-shooting, torturing
humans who were responsible for his present hateful captivity. With
beak and claw and wing, therefore, he fought this new evil that had
come presumedly to torment; and not until David had hit upon the
expedient of taking off his blouse, and throwing it over the angry
bird, could the boy get near enough to accomplish his purpose. Even
then David had to leave upon the slender leg a twist of leather.

A moment later, with a whir of wings and a frightened squawk that
quickly turned into a surpri