The Tale of Old Mr. Crow Part 3

Old Mr. Crow looked at the bandage. And he saw, clinging to it, a ma.s.s of caked mud. He could not understand that.

"Anyhow, I'm cured," he said sadly. He was disappointed, because there were still a good many of his friends to whom he had not yet shown his bandaged foot. "I don't consider that Aunt Polly Woodchuck is as good a doctor as people say," Mr. Crow grumbled. "Here she's gone and cured my foot almost a week before I wanted her to!"

And the next day he went over to see the old lady and complain about her mistake.

"What have you been eating?" she asked Mr. Crow.

He told her.

"Ah!" said Aunt Polly. "It's your mistake--and not mine. You ate what was in your _left-hand pocket_, instead of what was in the right-hand one. If you had followed my instructions everything would have been all right."

Old Mr. Crow felt very much ashamed. There was nothing he could say. So he slunk away and moped for three days.

Though he did not know it, the trouble with his foot was simply this: He had daubed so much tar on his foot, in Farmer Green's cornfield, that the soft earth had stuck to it in a big ball.

Mr. Crow recovered his spirits at last. And neither he nor Aunt Polly Woodchuck ever discovered that he never had gout at all. He forgave her, at last, for having cured his foot too quickly, for the affair gave him something to talk about for a long time afterward. He never tired of telling his friends about the trouble he had had.

But many of the feathered folk in Pleasant Valley grew very weary of the tale before they heard the last of it.

VIII

THE NEW UMBRELLA

Old Mr. Crow was feeling very happy, because he had a new umbrella--the only umbrella that was owned for miles around. And wherever Mr. Crow went, the umbrella went too, tucked snugly under his wing.

There was only one thing that could have made Mr. Crow feel any happier; and that was rain. As soon as it rained he intended to spread the umbrella over his head and go to call upon all of his friends.

But not a drop of rain had fallen for weeks. And so far as old Mr.

Crow could judge, there wasn't a single sign of a storm anywhere.

Nevertheless, he continued to carry his umbrella every time he stirred away from his house. And although the weather was so dry, he found a good deal of pleasure in showing his umbrella to his neighbors.

Now, old Mr. Crow had a cousin of whom you have heard. His name was Jasper Jay; and he was a great dandy. He always took pride in his handsome blue suit, of which he was very vain.

Being an inquisitive fellow, Jasper Jay was much interested in Mr. Crow's umbrella. Whenever he met Mr. Crow he asked the old gentleman to spread the umbrella; and once Mr. Crow had let Jasper hold it for as long as ten seconds, "just to see how it felt."

After that Jasper Jay could not get the umbrella out of his mind. He began calling at Mr. Crow's house every day; and all the time he was there he never took his eyes off the umbrella.

At last the two cousins met in the woods one day. As usual, Mr. Crow had his umbrella tucked under his wing. But when Jasper asked him to spread it, Mr. Crow refused.

"I can't keep putting my umbrella up and down," he said. "If I did, the first thing I knew it would be worn out; and then what would happen to me if it should rain?"

"You'd get wet," said Jasper Jay.

"Exactly!" Mr. Crow replied. "And at my age I might take cold and be very ill, perhaps."

"Where are you going?" Jasper inquired pleasantly. He was disappointed; but he did not let his cousin see that.

"I'm on my way to a big meeting of the Crow family," the old gentleman replied.

"And you're taking your umbrella?" Jasper asked, as if he were greatly astonished.

"Why--yes!" Mr. Crow answered. "You seem surprised."

"I am," said Jasper Jay with a sad shake of his head. "I'd hate to risk it, if I were you. There'll be some rough young fellows there and you're likely to lose your umbrella. I'm afraid they'll take it away from you."

Old Mr. Crow looked worried.

"I don't know what to do," he said anxiously. "It's an important meeting.

They're expecting me. And I'm late, as it is. If I go back home and leave my umbrella I'm afraid they'll think I'm not coming."

"I suppose I could help you just this once," Jasper Jay remarked. "Of course, it's not a thing I'd do for everybody. But since you're my cousin, if you want me to do it I'll take care of your umbrella until you come back again."

"Will you wait right here?" Mr. Crow asked him.

"Yes!"

"Will you promise not to spread the umbrella?"

At that question Jasper Jay's face fell. But pretty soon he said cheerfully:

"I promise not to put it up--unless it should rain."

Mr. Crow looked carefully at the sky. There was not a cloud to be seen.

So he turned to Jasper Jay with a smile and placed the umbrella carefully in his hands.

Then Mr. Crow flew away.

"It certainly can't rain," he said to himself.

Mr. Crow arrived at the meeting quite out of breath. And his friends noticed that he seemed uneasy about something. He kept looking up at the sky and asking everybody what he thought about the weather.

IX

CAUGHT IN THE RAIN

Left alone in the woods with Mr. Crow's umbrella, Jasper Jay had a fine time. First he looked at the umbrella very closely, from the handle to the slender tip. Then he placed it under his wing and strutted back and forth upon the ground, just as he had seen Mr. Crow parade before his friends. And Jasper wished that someone would come along and see him.

But n.o.body came. So after a while he grew tired of wis.h.i.+ng. And the next thing he did was to unfasten the strap that kept the folds of the umbrella wrapped about its stick.

"I'm not putting it up," he told himself. "I didn't promise I wouldn't do this. I only agreed not to spread the umbrella unless it rained."