The west Tennessee star. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1888, 1888-06-22

sharp DeakS ana vicious claws. The |
progress of the grounding homeward |
was consequently painful and slow.
Now and then his equanimity would |
be upset by some particular savage on |
slaught of the crows, and then he |
would turn and show fight; but that |
only increased the dimensions of the |
picnic the crows were having. AS |
good luck had it for the woodchuck, |
he wasn't far from his hole, and by
and by he reached it, and he went in
his front door as if he had never been
so glad to reach his humble abode be-
fore.
THE sudden disappearance of the
grounding caused great CONSERVATION
among the crows, and it was some time
before they could make up their minds
whether he had been whisked out of
sight in the air or the bottom had
dropped out somewhere and let him in.
One big old crow flew around among
the others and went through what
seemed to be some sort Of inspection as
/ if he rather suspected that some one of
them had swallowed the grounding at
a gulp. But by and by they seemed to
agree that the missing poacher had
/ gone into the hole at the edge of the
| field, and then they flew at it and
| picked into it and swOre like politi-
clans. They quoted down after a time
and held a solemn confab at the mouth
| of the grOund-hog's den. The result
! of this consultation was that two wise
looking old crows flew to a rail fence
twenty feet or so away and the rest re-
turned and resumed their dinner. /
was hot and so thirsty that my tongue
felt like whole potato in my mouth,
but l made up my mind that would
see that circus out, and so l sat still in
my wagon.
1.-THE two crows on the fence watched
that ground-hog's hole without once
taking their eyes of it. l knew then
that they had been placed there as
sentinels to give the alarm if the i'm
pudent intruder on their field of labor
should appear again. Twenty minutes
went by and no sound was heard from
the sentinels. Suddenly one of them
stepped up close to his companion and
mumbled something way down in his
throat, as if he was whispering. What
ever he said seemed to strike the other
crow as being the proper thing, and
he mumbled something back. Then
the two bObbed their heads and con-
fabbed further for minute or so, and
then yelled TO the flock out in the field.
The whole lot came flying to the fence.
and great pOw-wOw was held. The
noisy interchange of views seemed to
end in a perfect agreement among the
crows, for they all flew down in body
and surrounded the ground-hog's hole.
J 1 thought at first that they intended
to 90 to work and dig the poor wood
chuck out and make a meal of him,
but that idea was soon knocked out of
my head. What do you suppose they
7 did? They all fell to with a will and
began to fill that ground-hog's hole up
? with stones and dirt. They worked
and they worked and they worked, and
in the course of half an hour they had
plugged the hole up as far as they
I could get the dirt and stuff into it,
and packed it down so hard that moth
I ing less than pickaxe could have
budged it. 1 was beginning to feel
sorry for that unfortunate woodchuck,
( all fastened up in the hole that way,
, and probably pretty badly torn up by
the attacks of the crows ut that, and
; was resolving in my mind to 60 and
borrow a pick somewhere and come
back and dig him out that night after
I the crows had gone to roost, when
what should see but something NOV
- ing on the opposite side of the knoll,
4 and presently pop! came the ground
e hog's head out of the ground, fifty feet
~
1 ging away at fastening him in, and out
Of their sight The willy animal had
I dug his way across and made a new
e exit He drew himself out slyly, looked
5 cautiously aboutfOr moment, listened
g attentively, then stole around the base
a of the knoll, and went back to the
n wheat-feld, where he took his position
T in the stubble and went 10 feeding
: again as if nothing had happened. AL
this time the crows were still working
e away at making the grounding {
y prisoner, as they supposed, and KEEP
y on for ten minutes after the ground
,, hog had returned to his mutton in the
q field. The situation was so comica
II that l could hardly keep from bowling
g but did, because felt that there was
y more fun coming and didn't want t.
e spoil it,
g After the ground-hog's hole hat
u been Theoretically sealed the crows
q held another pow-wow, at which they
, plainly congratulated themselves OF
n the clever manner in which they haC
I oircumvented the woodchuck. Their
r they all rose up and flew back TOWARD
u their feeding-place. Suddenly tn,
II leading crow actually staggered IN tn,
4 air and circled back in dazed sort O
IL way to the fence. He had caught sigh
of the grounding placidly gathering
g wheat in the stubble. Crow afte
" crow made the same discovery. and al
q brought up in a state of almost speech
"a less CONSERVATION on the fence. Pres
g emily they found their voices, and tn
ia air rang with strange sounds. Thel
al one after another of the crows flew
y back to the filled-up hole, and finding
"a it intact the CONSERVATION and amaze
p ment seemed to be increased. Sud
N denly one accommodating old GROW
L gave a yell that almost raised my hair
IS He had found the ground-hog's new
20 exit in the rear of the knoll. Tn
IL. whole flock inspected it amid babe
e of hot words. 1t was plain enough
le that tho mystery was solved for them
e Pretty soon one after another of tn
D. crows circled about the ground-ho.
- and then alighted on the fence. l ex
II pected to see the battle renewed an,
SO the grounding rended limb from limb
10 but the crows consulted on the fenc
y and seemed very much crestfallen
"a After a while they rose as one bir,