when everyone began to
call him "Daddy" it was only to be expected that he would not care to
let people know that he was not even a year old--instead of ninety or a
hundred, as they supposed. Besides, probably nobody would have believed
the truth. So he never told his age.

Indeed, there were some who claimed that Daddy Longlegs must be much
more than only a hundred years old. They thought that his queer,
tottering walk alone was enough to show his great age.

But it is not strange that his walk seemed a bit uncertain. When a
person has eight feet it is to be expected that he will have a little
trouble managing them. It is to be expected that he will sometimes find
himself trying to walk off in several different directions at the same
time.

III

MR. CROW IS DISPLEASED

DADDY LONGLEGS had such pleasant manners that it was no time at all
before his neighbors agreed that he was a good old soul. And everybody
was glad to claim him as a friend.

At least, everybody but Mr. Crow! Mr. Crow soon found that people were
asking Daddy's advice on all sorts of questions (because they thought he
was very old--and therefore very wise). And Mr. Crow at once became so
jealous that he didn't know what to do. He began making unkind remarks
about his new rival, saying that no matter how old a person might be,
if he had a small head and eight long legs it was not reasonable to
believe that he could have much of a brain. Whenever anybody mentioned
Daddy's name, Mr. Crow would _haw-haw_ loudly and mutter something about
"old Spindley Legs!"

Mr. Crow had spent many summers in Pleasant Valley. And during that time
he had advised thousands of his neighbors. Indeed, he often boasted that
if he had a kernel of corn for every bit of advice he had given away, he
never would have to wonder where he was going to get his next meal.

When some friend of Mr. Crow's repeated that speech to Daddy Longlegs,
he observed that Mr. Crow must be very wise.

"No doubt----" he added in his thin, quavering voice--"no doubt Mr.
Crow's help would be worth a kernel of corn to anybody who was in
trouble. If his advice was good, no one would object to paying for it.
And if it proved to be bad, no one would miss a kernel of corn."

It happened that Daddy Longlegs' comment soon reached the ears of old
Mr. Crow. And it made that gentleman furious.

"This is the first time anybody has suggested that my advice is not
always first-class!" he croaked. "