e left that ear
and went to another. The husks of this were as thick as those on the
first. He flew to another shock and found the husks there just the same.
He tried a third shock with the same result.

"Huh, they are all alike," said he. Then he looked thoughtful and for a
few minutes sat perfectly still like a black statue. "They are right,"
said he at last. "Yes, Sir, they are right." Of course he meant Johnny
Chuck and Jerry Muskrat and Paddy the Beaver and the Quacks. "I don't
know how they know it, but they are right; we are going to have a long,
hard, cold winter. I know it myself now. I've found a sign. Old Mother
Nature has wrapped this corn in extra thick husks, and of course she has
done it to protect it. She doesn't do things without a reason. We are
going to have a cold winter, or my name isn't Blacky the Crow."

CHAPTER XVI: Blacky Finds Other Signs

A single fact may fail to prove you either right or wrong;
Confirm it with another and your proof will then be strong.
--Blacky the Crow.

After his discovery that Old Mother Nature had wrapped all the ears
of corn in extra thick husks, Blacky had no doubt in his own mind that
Johnny Chuck and Jerry Muskrat and Paddy the Beaver and the Quacks were
quite right in feeling that the coming winter would be long, hard and
cold. But Blacky long ago learned that it isn't wise or wholly safe to
depend altogether on one thing.

"Old Mother Nature never does things by halves," thought Blacky, as he
sat on the fence post on the Green Meadows, thinking over his discovery
of the thick husks on the corn. "She wouldn't take care to protect the
corn that way and not do as much for other things. There must be other
signs, if I am smart enough to find them."

He lifted one black wing and began to set in order the feathers beneath
it. Suddenly he made a funny little hop straight up.

"Well, I never!" he exclaimed, as he spread his wings to regain his
balance. "I never did!"

"Is that so?" piped a squeaky little voice. "If you say you never did, I
suppose you never did, though I want the word of some one else before I
will believe it. What is it you never did?"

Blacky looked down. Peeping up at him from the brown grass were two
bright little eyes.

"Hello, Danny Meadow Mouse!" exclaimed Blacky. "I haven't seen you for a
long time. I've looked for you several times lately."

"I don't doubt it. I don't doubt it at all," squeaked Danny. "You'll
never see