l enough alone," he said, "and stick to my raft."

Then he came to a woods through which the river flowed. It was swampy
here, and twigs and tree trunks seemed to grow out of the water long
distances from the shore.

"If I can find a tree fallen in the river, I'll hop on it and escape,"
Bumper reasoned.

He was so absorbed in watching for a chance to escape that he hardly
noticed a black shadow hovering over him. Not until it approached very
close did he duck his head and look up.

"Caw! Caw!"

It was a big, black crow. Now Bumper had never seen a crow. In fact, he
had never seen any of the wild animals of the woods, for it must be
remembered that he was born in the city. Of course, he had seen plenty of
sparrows, for they live in the cities, and also sewer rats. A few bats had
also flown over the old woman's backyard on warm nights hunting insects,
and Bumper was more or less acquainted with them.

But a crow! He didn't know what it was. So when the loud, raucous cry
assailed his ears, he squatted down on his raft, expecting every minute to
be attacked by the black shadow above.

"Caw! Caw!" screamed the big bird.

"Mr. Caw! Mr. Caw!" cried Bumper, supposing that was the bird's name.
"Good morning! How do you do?"

Now, the crow is very sensitive about his inability to sing. He used to
think that cawing was singing until the birds all laughed at him. After
that he kept by himself, and very rarely joined the other birds in the
woods or fields.

Bumper's calling him by that name very naturally angered him. It was a
slight, a slur upon his voice, and he resented it at once. It must be
remembered also that the crow had never seen a white rabbit before, and
Bumper's appearance floating on the plank had excited the bird's
curiosity. White rabbits don't run wild in the woods, and Bumper was
almost as much a mystery to the crow as the latter was to the former. All
the rabbits Mr. Crow knew were gray or brown, with a white belly and tail,
and none of them had pink eyes. So it was quite natural that the black
bird should be curious and surprised at the sight of a pure white rabbit,
with pink eyes, floating down the river on a raft.

"Caw! Caw!" screamed the crow, flapping his wings so that the wind made by
them ruffled Bumper's hair.

"Yes, yes, Mr. Caw. I understand," replied Bumper, getting excited by the
nearness of this big, black thing.

"How dare you make fun of me!" cried Mr. Crow, striking the tip of
Bum