somebody else spoke of it first. And then Mr. Crow would shake his head
slowly, and sigh, and say:

"It's strange that Farmer Green doesn't understand how much I help him.
I'm as busy as I can be all summer long, destroying insects that injure
his crops. And since I help Farmer Green to raise his corn, I'm sure I
have as good a right to a share of it as the horses that plough the
field, or the men that hoe it. Farmer Green gives them corn to eat.
But he never once thinks of giving me any."

You see, there are always two sides to every question. And that was Mr.
Crow's. But Farmer Green never knew how Mr. Crow felt about the matter.
And every spring, at corn-planting time, he used to set up scarecrows
in his cornfield, hoping that they would frighten the crows away.

And so they did. At least, some of the younger crows were afraid of those
straw-stuffed dummies, with their hats tipped over their faces, or upon
one side, and their empty sleeves flapping in the winds that swept
through the valley. But old Mr. Crow was too wise to be fooled so easily.
He would scratch up the corn at the very feet of a scarecrow--and chuckle
at the same time.

It must not be supposed that Farmer Green did not know what was going
on. He often caught sight of Mr. Crow in the cornfield. But it always
happened that Mr. Crow saw him too. And Farmer Green could never get
near the old rogue.

At last Johnnie Green's father spent a whole evening trying to think of
some way in which to outwit Mr. Crow. And by bedtime he had hit upon a
plan that he liked.