sed caw of triumphant rejoicing, the crow
soared into the air and made straight for a distant tree-top. David,
after a minute's glad surveying of his work, donned his blouse again
and resumed his walk.

It was almost six o'clock when David got back to the Holly farmhouse.
In the barn doorway sat Perry Larson.

"Well, sonny," the man greeted him cheerily, "did ye get yer weedin'
done?"

"Y--yes," hesitated David. "I got it done; but I didn't like it."

"'T is kinder hot work."

"Oh, I didn't mind that part," returned David. "What I didn't like was
pulling up all those pretty little plants and letting them die."

"Weeds--'pretty little plants'!" ejaculated the man. "Well, I'll be
jiggered!"

"But they WERE pretty," defended David, reading aright the scorn in
Perry Larson's voice. "The very prettiest and biggest there were,
always. Mr. Holly showed me, you know,--and I had to pull them up."

"Well, I'll be jiggered!" muttered Perry Larson again.

"But I've been to walk since. I feel better now."

"Oh, ye do!"

"Oh, yes. I had a splendid walk. I went 'way up in the woods on the
hill there. I was singing all the time--inside, you know. I was so glad
Mrs. Holly--wanted me. You know what it is, when you sing inside."

Perry Larson scratched his head.

"Well, no, sonny, I can't really say I do," he retorted. "I ain't much
on singin'."

"Oh, but I don't mean aloud. I mean inside. When you're happy, you
know."

"When I'm--oh!" The man stopped and stared, his mouth falling open.
Suddenly his face changed, and he grinned appreciatively. "Well, if you
ain't the beat 'em, boy! 'T is kinder like singin'--the way ye feel
inside, when yer 'specially happy, ain't it? But I never thought of it
before."

"Oh, yes. Why, that's where I get my songs--inside of me, you
know--that I play on my violin. And I made a crow sing, too. Only HE
sang outside."

"SING--A CROW!" scoffed the man. "Shucks! It'll take more 'n you ter
make me think a crow can sing, my lad."

"But they do, when they're happy," maintained the boy. "Anyhow, it
doesn't sound the same as it does when they're cross, or plagued over
something. You ought to have heard this one to-day. He sang. He was so
glad to get away. I let him loose, you see."

"You mean, you CAUGHT a crow up there in them woods?" The man's voice
was skeptical.

"Oh, no, I didn't catch it. But somebody had, and tied him up. And he
was so unhappy!"

"A crow tied up in the woods!"