"Oh, I didn't find THAT in the woods. It was before I went up the hill
at all."

"A crow tied up--Look a-here, boy, what are you talkin' about? Where
was that crow?" Perry Larson's whole self had become suddenly alert.

"In the field 'Way over there. And somebody--"

"The cornfield! Jingo! Boy, you don't mean you touched THAT crow?"

"Well, he wouldn't let me TOUCH him," half-apologized David. "He was so
afraid, you see. Why, I had to put my blouse over his head before he'd
let me cut him loose at all."

"Cut him loose!" Perry Larson sprang to his feet. "You did n't--you
DIDn't let that crow go!"

David shrank back.

"Why, yes; he WANTED to go. He--" But the man before him had fallen
back despairingly to his old position.

"Well, sir, you've done it now. What the boss'll say, I don't know; but
I know what I'd like ter say to ye. I was a whole week, off an' on,
gettin' hold of that crow, an' I wouldn't have got him at all if I
hadn't hid half the night an' all the mornin' in that clump o' bushes,
watchin' a chance ter wing him, jest enough an' not too much. An' even
then the job wa'n't done. Let me tell yer, 't wa'n't no small thing ter
get him hitched. I'm wearin' the marks of the rascal's beak yet. An'
now you've gone an' let him go--just like that," he finished, snapping
his fingers angrily.

In David's face there was no contrition. There was only incredulous
horror.

"You mean, YOU tied him there, on purpose?"

"Sure I did!"

"But he didn't like it. Couldn't you see he didn't like it?" cried
David.

"Like it! What if he didn't? I didn't like ter have my corn pulled up,
either. See here, sonny, you no need ter look at me in that tone o'
voice. I didn't hurt the varmint none ter speak of--ye see he could
fly, didn't ye?--an' he wa'n't starvin'. I saw to it that he had enough
ter eat an' a dish o' water handy. An' if he didn't flop an' pull an'
try ter get away he needn't 'a' hurt hisself never. I ain't ter blame
for what pullin' he done."

"But wouldn't you pull if you had two big wings that could carry you to
the top of that big tree there, and away up, up in the sky, where you
could talk to the stars?--wouldn't you pull if somebody a hundred times
bigger'n you came along and tied your leg to that post there?"

The man, Perry, flushed an angry red.

"See here, sonny, I wa'n't askin' you ter do no preachin'. What I did
ain't no more'n any man 'round here does--if he's smart enough ter
catch one. R