as to get at the yellow grains.

"Seems to me these husks are unusually thick," muttered Blacky, as
he tore at them with his stout bill. "Don't remember ever having
seen them as thick as these. Wonder if it just happens to be so on
this ear."

Then, as a sudden thought popped into his black head, he left that
ear and went to another. The husks of this were as thick as those on
the first. He flew to another shock and found the husks there just
the same. He tried a third shock with the same result.

"Huh, they are all alike," said he. Then he looked thoughtful and
for a few minutes sat perfectly still like a black statue. "They are
right," said he at last. "Yes, Sir, they are right." Of course he
meant Johnny Chuck and Jerry Muskrat and Paddy the Beaver and the
Quacks. "I don't know how they know it, but they are right; we are
going to have a long, hard, cold winter. I know it myself now. I've
found a sign. Old Mother Nature has wrapped this corn in extra thick
husks, and of course she has done it to protect it. She doesn't do
things without a reason. We are going to have a cold winter, or my
name isn't Blacky the Crow."



CHAPTER XVI: Blacky Finds Other Signs

A single fact may fail to prove you either right or wrong;
Confirm it with another and your proof will then be strong.
- Blacky the Crow.