never once guessed whose eggs they are. I might have known that no
one but Hooty the Horned Owl would think of nesting at this time of
year. And that was Mrs. Hooty I saw on the nest just now. My, but
she's big! She's bigger than Hooty himself! Yes, Sir, it's a lucky
thing I didn't try to get those eggs yesterday. Probably both Hooty
and Mrs. Hooty were sitting close by, only they were sitting so
still that I thought they were parts of the tree they were
in. Blacky, Blacky, the sooner you forget those eggs the better."

Some things are best forgotten As soon as they are learned.
Who never plays with fire Will surely not get burned.



CHAPTER IV: The Cunning Of Blacky

Now when Blacky the Crow discovered that the eggs in the old
tumble-down nest of Redtail the Hawk in a lonesome corner of the
Green Forest belonged to Hooty the Owl, he straightway made the best
of resolutions; he would simply forget all about those eggs. He
would forget that he ever had seen them, and he would stay away from
that corner of the Green Forest. That was a very wise resolution. Of
all the people who live in the Green Forest, none is fiercer or more
savage than Hooty the Owl, unless it is Mrs. Hooty. She is bigger
than Hooty and certainly quite as much to be feared by the little
people.

All this Blacky knows. No one knows it better. And Blacky is not one
to poke his head into trouble with his eyes open. So he very wisely
resolved to forget all about those eggs. Now it is one thing to make