boy didn't see Buster Bear, but only his footprint. Perhaps he
didn't know whose it was, and if he had he wouldn't have been afraid.
Now I've got a plan by which we can see for ourselves if he really is
afraid of Buster Bear."

"What is it?" asked Sammy Jay eagerly.

Blacky the Crow shook his head and winked. "That's telling," said he. "I
want to think it over. If you meet me at the Big Hickory-tree at sun-up
to-morrow morning, and get everybody else to come that you can, perhaps
I will tell you."

XI

BLACKY THE CROW TELLS HIS PLAN

Blacky is a dreamer!
Blacky is a schemer!
His voice is strong;
When things go wrong
Blacky is a screamer!

It's a fact. Blacky the Crow is forever dreaming and scheming and almost
always it is of mischief. He is one of the smartest and cleverest of all
the little people of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest, and all the
others know it. Blacky likes excitement. He wants something going on.
The more exciting it is, the better he likes it. Then he has a chance to
use that harsh voice of his, and how he does use it!

So now, as he sat in the top of the Big Hickory-tree beside the Smiling
Pool and looked down on all the little people gathered there, he was
very happy. In the first place he felt very important, and you know
Blacky dearly loves to feel important. They had all come at his
invitation to listen to a plan for seeing for themselves if it were
really true that Farmer Brown's boy was afraid of Buster Bear.

On the Big Rock in the Smiling Pool sat Little Joe Otter, Billy Mink,
and Jerry Muskrat. On his big, green lily-pad sat Grandfather Frog. On
another lily-pad sat Spotty the Turtle. On the bank on one side of the
Smiling Pool were Peter Rabbit, Jumper the Hare, Danny Meadow Mouse,
Johnny Chuck, Jimmy Skunk, Unc' Billy Possum, Striped Chipmunk and Old
Mr. Toad. On the other side of the Smiling Pool were Reddy Fox, Digger
the Badger, and Bobby Coon. In the Big Hickory-tree were Chatterer the
Red Squirrel, Happy Jack the Gray Squirrel, and Sammy Jay.

Blacky waited until he was sure that no one else was coming. Then he
cleared his throat very loudly and began to speak. "Friends," said he.

Everybody grinned, for Blacky has played so many sharp tricks that no
one is really his friend unless it is that other mischief-maker, Sammy
Jay, who, you know, is Blacky's cousin. But no one said anything, and
Blacky went on.

"Little Joe Otter has told us how