The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1918-09-25
E1 MDY'S Gy[N|NG
III FAIRY TALE
la 81 hAM @AHaMpQ ER
ABUSED CROW.

'It makes me pretty angry at times"
said Charlie Crow.
"What makes you angry? Cav.
Cav, Cav, what makes you angryT
asked Mrs. Charlie Crow.
"The farmers make NE angry. Their
lack of appreciation of me makes me
feel terribly. Oh, it is beyond words
at times, to tell how sad l feel" And
Charlie Crow wept tear which fell
on his handsome black coat.
poor Charlie" said Mrs. Crow. "My
poor child. Charlie"
For when he was feeling sad and
mournful Mrs Grow always treated
him as though he were a child crow
instead of a grown-up Mr.. Crow.
"And they still put the scarecrows
in their fields. They still do
you mean those creatures made out
of sticks and things, which are dressed
up like men with guns, eh?' asked
Mrs. Crow.
eyes. they are called scarecrows,
said Charlie "They are put In the
fields to scare away the crows and
that is why they have such name
you see-scarecrows, or Let US
scare the crows"
"Ah, that is a sad and sorry tale"
said Mrs. Crow. "To think of farm
ers still putting those scarecrows in
the fields Why, they actually keep
many. many crows away. We under
stand them. We know they are only
make-believe men and that they carry
| only make-believe guns. But it's not
| kind of the farmers to try to brighten
| us away. We are really such good
| friends of the farmers"
sThat'S So" said Charlie; "that is
where the sad part of it comes in. oh.
dear, oh, dear" and poor Mr.. Charlie
| Grow wept another bitter tear, which
made his black coat quite wet.
| Mrs. Charlie Crow took her maple
leaf handkerchief which Mr.. Crow had
given her on her last birthday (she
had birthdays very often, so as TO get
lots of presents), and wiped the wet
spot which had been made by the
| tear.
"Don't weep, Mr. Grow. Don't weep.
| Charlie, old boy. Nothing is so bad
that it mightn't be worse, I've heard
| wise people say"
"Ah, that's so, I suppose" said
| Charlie "But I can't think of any
thing that could be worse than the
lack of appreciation which the farmers
| show me.
sit is true, we do steal the grain
| and the corn. We love corn-al1 crows
| do. And many of us are thieves-in
fact, most of us are thieves, believe.
But we must eat and we must live,
and if we can't go to the markets and
put down pennies and nickels and
dimes for our food, we just have to
take it as we can.
"NVe can't shop like people. We
have no money, no pocketbooks, no
bank accounts. The squirrels have
savings banks where they save nuts,
like children save their pennies. But
we are without all these things
'We are without all of Them
agreed Mrs. Crow. 'And it is most In
sulting for the farmers to put scare
crows in the fields, and it is still more
hard-hearted of them to let us thinl,
for a moment that they would have
guns fred off at us-that's what they
try to make us think.
"Yes. it's hard, very, very hard" she
said
"And though I viii admit that oui
| family does steal and that we do rot
the farmers of some goodies-still, the
harm we do doesn't half come up to
the good we do. We eat the grubs and
different kinds of worms which would
destroy the corn, and we really save
the crops for the farmers, many enc
many time" said Charlie.
"Yes," said Mrs. Crow, ''the harm
we do is little. The good we dc
amounts to a great deal. But, Charlie
don't be sad or insulted. for things