I'm glad I didn't take 'em."

As he turned back toward home, he saw Blacky the Crow flying over
the Green Forest, and little did he guess how he had upset Blacky's
plans.



CHAPTER XIII: Blacky Has A Change Of Heart

Blacky The Crow isn't all black. No, indeed. His coat is black, and
sometimes it seems as if his heart is all black, but this isn't
so. It certainly seemed as if his heart was all black when he tried
so hard to make trouble for Hooty the Owl. It would seem as if only
a black heart could have urged him to try so hard to steal the eggs
of Hooty and Mrs. Hooty, but this wasn't really so. You see, it
didn't seem at all wrong to try to get those eggs. Blacky was
hungry, and those eggs would have given him a good meal. He knew
that Hooty wouldn't hesitate to catch him and eat him if he had the
chance, and so it seemed to him perfectly right and fair to steal
Hooty's eggs if he was smart enough to do so. And most of the other
little people of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows would have
felt the same way about it. You see, it is one of the laws of Old
Mother Nature that each one must learn to look out for himself.

But when Blacky showed that nest of Hooty's to Farmer Brown's boy
with the hope that Farmer Brown's boy would steal those eggs, there
was blackness in his heart. He was doing something then which was
pure meanness. He was just trying to make trouble for Hooty, to get
even because Hooty had been too smart for him. He had sat in the top