d.

Corbie, even at ten days old, was not like the spry children of Peter
Piper, who could run about at one day old, all ready for picnics and
teetering along the shore. No, indeed! He was almost as helpless and
quite as floppy as a human baby, and he needed as good care, too. He
needed warmth enough and food enough and a clean nest to live in; and he
needed to be kept safe from such prowling animals as will eat young
birds, and from other enemies. All these things his father and mother
had looked out for.

Now the little Corbie was kidnaped--taken away from his home and the
loving and patient care of his parents.

But you need not be sorry for Corbie--not very. For the Brown-eyed Boy
and the Blue-eyed Girl adopted the little chap, and gave him food enough
and warmth enough and a chance to keep his new nest clean; and they did
it all with love and patience, too.

Corbie kept them busy, for they were quick to learn that, when he opened
his beak and said, "Kah," it was meal-time, even if he had had luncheon
only ten minutes before. His throat was very red and very hollow, and
seemed ready to swallow no end of fresh raw egg and bits of raw beef and
earthworms and bread soaked in milk. Not that he had to have much at a
time, but he needed so very many meals a day. It was fun to feed the
little fellow, because he grew so fast and because he was so comical
when he called, "Kah."

It was not long before his body looked as if he had a crop of
paint-brushes growing all over it; for a feather, when it first comes,
is protected by a little case, and the end of the feather, which sticks
out of the tip of the case, does look very much like the soft hairs at
the end of a paint-brush, the kind that has a hollow quill stem, you
know. After they were once started, dear me, how those feathers grew! It
seemed no time at all before they covered up the ear-holes in the side
of his head, and no time at all before a little bristle fringe grew down
over the nose-holes in his long horny beak.

He was nearly twenty days old before he could stand up on his toes like
a grown-up crow. Before that, when he stood up in his nest and "kahed"
for food, he stood on his whole foot way back to the heel, which looks
like a knee, only it bends the wrong way. When he was about three weeks
old, however, he began standing way up on his toes, and stretching his
leg till his heels came up straight. Then he would flap his wings and
exercise them, too.

Of