@he @rows’ ©ouneil. .

We/@s) HE crows of Crow Hollow were very angry. They held indignation

) meetings on every tree and fence corner in the neighborhood, until
the air was filled with the sound of their shrill “Caw! Caw!” and the
spiteful flutter of black wings. The object of their wrath, the innocent
cause of their general uprising, was nothing but Farmer Brown's wind-
mill, that stood just back of the barn, and just within the boundary of his corn
lot.

Now this particular crow family had made its home for years in this neigh-
borhood. In fact, they made it their regular summer resort, and yearly, as
spring returned, they returned with it from their winter residence in the south.
You see that the crows of Crow Hollow were very tony birds. They had their
winter residence and theirsummer resort. These crows, by great industry and
patience in plying their trade, which was helping themselves to Farmer Brown's
corn, made anice living. Years before the family had been small, and had
lived in very plain style, but every year their numbers had grown larger and
larger, until now they looked upon themselves as a regular community. They
held their heads very high, and looked down upon the other birds in the neigh-
borhood. They looked upon men and scare-crows with contempt. In fact,
they considered that man was but a walking scare-crow, and that both were a
lower order of beings brought into existence for their benefit. It was man’s
business to provide food for them, while the scare-crow served as a very con-
venient roosting-place and a sort of look-out from which they could make
plans for future depredations. As they had lost all fear of both men and scare-
crows they naturally began to look upon the country as their own, and bye
and bye began to think that it was very generous of them to allow Farmer
Brown and his fellow farmers to till the land without payment of rent.

So it was with deep indignation and injured self-esteem that, upon their
return from the south one spring, they found that Farmer Brown had put up
the largest kind of a scare-crow upon his corn lot, and to make it worse, the
thing had only one leg, and no head to speak of, but had four arms which it
kept in constant motion, as if to hide its deformities. Oh, how the crows did
“Caw!” and flap their wings. ‘“Itis an insult!” criedone. “He shall be punished
for this!’ said another. “I wonder if he thinks we are fools, or have not cut our
eye teeth yet?” asked one hot-headed young crow. ‘We will show him,” and
with that away he flew with several companions, direct into the monster's great
whirling arms. Alas! There was more fluttering of feathers than had been