ail.

Widow Blunt sat in her splint-bottomed chair by her kitchen window and
laughed and laughed, and laughed. "That poor robin thought he was a
goner!" she said to herself. "That old owl is good for something, after
all!"

Widow Blunt's full-blooded Plymouth Rock Rooster came around the house
with four hens. He was going to show the hens where the cherries were
falling on the ground. One of the hens saw the big owl sitting in the
cherry tree.

"See that terrible bird in the tree!" she said. Mister Rooster looked up
and saw Mister Sparrow sitting in the English currant bush.

"I could eat four birds like that one!" said the rooster.

"You are very brave!" said the hen, "but something tells me that I do
not care for cherries to-day!" and the hen started running for the barn.

Just then Mister Rooster saw the big owl.

"Ca-daa-cut! Ca-daa-cut!" he screamed. "Run for your lives!" and the big
rooster was one of the first to get under the barn.

Widow Blunt rocked back and forth in her splint-bottomed chair and
laughed, and laughed, and laughed. "It is better than a vaudeville!" she
said.

Mister Samson Crow came flying over, and he saw the big owl sitting in
Widow Blunt's early cherry tree.

Samson Crow was very much surprised to see an owl sitting in a cherry
tree in the daytime, and he said to himself: "My eyes are fairly good,
and they tell me that a whole owl is sitting in that tree!" Then Samson
Crow flew down to where Robert Robin was saying, "Tut! Tut! Tut!" in the
harvest apple tree.

"I am very glad that you came, Mister Crow!" said Robert Robin. "Please
drive that ugly owl out of that cherry tree so that I may get some more
cherries for my baby robins!"

"That is what I am going to do!" said Samson Crow. "But what puzzles me
is why any owl would be sitting in a cherry tree right near a house, in
broad daylight! Why is he there, and what does he want?"

"I have no doubt but that he is after my cherries!" said Robert Robin.

"That is all I care to know about it!" said Samson Crow. "I will drive
him out of your tree this very minute!"

Samson Crow flew straight at the owl. The big owl glared at him with its
great glass eyes and never moved. "Caw! Caw!" screamed Samson Crow, but
the big owl sat perfectly still. Around and around the tree flew Samson
Crow, but the big owl sat perfectly still. Samson Crow perched on a
branch and shouted at the big owl, but the big owl did not even turn his
head, nor c