Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1906-04-24

lare lake was so large that it covered
| the whole state.
In the middle Of the lake there was
tall pole sticking up out of the water.
! The only living things in all that
great waste of waters were hawk
and q crow. One of them sat upon
the pole in the middle of the lake,
while the other flew around and
around and UP and down until he was
tired. Then he would come and knock
the first one off the pole and seat him
self upon it to rest; and then the first
one would fly around and around until
he was tired. Then he would come
back and knock the other off; and SO
they went on for many years.
i One day the crow said to the hawk,
Suppose we each build some dry land
and then we each can have resting
place."
And the hawk laughed and said.
"You lazy old crow! You couldn't
build anything in a thousand years,
and you know that wouldn't let you
sit on my dry land to rest no matter
how tired you were!"
1 Il don't care" said the crow. You
see Il | don't build bigger mountains
than yours, anyway-you see IL !
don't!''
you can't do It'll" said the hawk.
"I'll show YOU" said the crow
| Whereupon the hawk knocked the
crow off the pole and then the crow
lost his temper and knocked the hawk
off and so they quarreled until they
were nearly worn out.
Then the hawk said, whats the
use In fighting over our mountains
we haven't built any mountains yet!
I'd like to know where we're going to
get the dfrt!''
Il don't know either" Jaid the crow.
"But if you let me sit on the pole
awhile, Ill soon work that question
OUT
The crow thought himself a lot
smarter than the hawk.
He said to himself, 81 mayn't work
SO hard as some folks, but a fellow
doesn't have to when he uses his
branis."
So the Hawk flew away and left the
crow sitting on the pole scratching his
head and trying to think where to get
the dirt.
The crow thought and thought until
he had scratched the feathers nearly
all out and still he couldn't think of
a way.
BY and by the hawk came back,
flying along with his head on one side
and nalf smiling. When the crow saw
him coming he jumped up and down
on the pole to joggle his brains, SO
that he could think fast, but it wasn't
any use; he couldn't think of a thing.
The hawk inquired. politely. "Have
you thought of it yet?'
"N5,'' said the crow, mad all over,
! "and you can't think of it either!"
+ The hawk laughed "1t's easy" he
said. olive for it, that's ALL"
i And the hawk turned his tail up and
his head down and shot like rocket
\ to the bottom of the lake, where he
i filled his beak full of dirt and came
scooting up again in jiffy.
The crow turned nearly green, he
was SO thoroughly mad
i eel get even with him for being so
very smart" he said. eff he had left
me alone few minutes I'd have
thought of diving, myself! But I'll get
event"
i Then the crow folded. his wings and
turned up his toes AMI shot down for
a billful himself.
\ In this way the two went to work
on the pole while the other one
worked. The crow built his mountains
on the west and the hawk built his
mountains on the east. The hawk
worked a good deal faster than the
crow and he whistled and laughed and
! turned somersaults in the air and had
! a good time besides.
4 The crow was mad because the
hawk got SO much more done, and so
he wouldn't talk at all, but just
4 thought and thought how he could
harm the hawk and get the start of
him.
BY and by the crow thought of a
way. While the hawk slept he stole
dirt from his mountains and so,
though he didn't work half so hard as
/ the hawk, his mountains on the west
grew steadily larger.
/ The hawk couldn't understand it. He
said, II never saw anything SO queer!"
Huh said the crow. "It's easy!
If you didn't spend so much time
playing and standing on your head and
laughing like a fool. you could catch
up with me-"
So the hawk slept less and less and
worked harder and harder, but he
couldn't catch up: and the crow
laughed in his boots all the time be-
cause the hawk was so tired when he
did go to sleep that he himself could
steal whole slices right from under his
very nose and he wouldn't hear him.
At last the hawk stopped laughing
and whistling and spent much more
time thinking; and finally one day, he
pretended he was asleep when he
wasn't and SO he caught the crow at
| it at last He was SO ANGRY he near
ly ate his toes off trying to keep still.
He wanted to punish the crow so he
would never forget it. He thought and
thought and thought, but It wasn't any
use.
At last the hawk went and ate In
dian tobacco. 1t made him marvellous
| ly wise at once. 1t taught his great
deep secrets Of power, and one night
when the crow was asleep, he stole
his lnountains-not little piece of