best to understand. He waits and watches and uses those sharp eyes
of his and those quick wits of his until at last usually he does
understand.

The day of his discovery of Old Mother Nature's signs that the
coming winter would be long, hard and cold, Blacky paid a visit to
the Big River. Long ago he discovered that many things are to be
seen on or beside the Big River, things not to be seen elsewhere. So
there are few clays in which he does not get over there.

As he drew near the Big River, he was very watchful and careful, was
Blacky, for this was the season when hunters with terrible guns were
abroad, and he had discovered that they were likely to be hiding
along the Big River, hoping to shoot Mr. or Mrs. Quack or some of
their relatives. So he was very watchful as he drew near the Big
River, for he had learned that it was dangerous to pass too near a
hunter with a terrible gun. More than once he had been shot at. But
he had learned by these experiences. Oh, yes, Blacky had
learned. For one thing, he had learned to know a gun when he saw
it. For another thing, he had learned just how far away one of these
dreadful guns could be and still hurt the one it was pointed at, and
to always keep just a little farther away. Also he had learned that
a man or boy without a terrible gun is quite harmless, and he had
learned that hunters with terrible guns are tricky and sometimes
hide from those they seek to kill, so that in the dreadful hunting
season it is best to look sharply before approaching any place.

On this afternoon, as he drew near the Big River, he saw a man who
seemed to be very busy on the shore of the Big River, at a place
where wild rice and rushes grew for some distance out in the water,