t of their shells, the Crow helped to feed them also.

So all went happily for a time, and Mr. and Mrs. Swan were deeply
grateful to the kind Crow. But Crows are not kind without some reason,
and what this Crow's reason was, you shall now hear.

Time went on, and one day Mr. Swan said to Mrs. Swan--

"My dear, the famine must be over by this time. What do you say? shall
we go home again?"

"I am ready," Mrs. Swan said, "and we can start to-morrow if you like."

"Stop a bit," says Mr. Crow, "I have a word or two to say first."

"Why, what do you mean?" the Swans said, both together.

"I mean," said the Crow, "that you may go, if you like, but these
cygnets are as much mine as yours, and may I be plucked if I let them go
with you!"

"Yours!" said Mrs. Swan. "Who laid the eggs? who hatched them?"

"And who fed them, I should like to ask?" said the Crow, with a
disagreeable laugh: "Caw, caw, caw!"

Here was a bolt from the blue! The Crow stuck to it, and the end of all
was, that Mrs. Swan stayed behind to look after her little ones, while
Mr. Swan flew off to lay a complaint in court against the greedy Crow.

But you must not suppose that this Crow meant to sit still, and let the
Swan have things all his own way. Not he; off he flew secretly to the
Judge, and to the Judge said he--

"O Judge, a Swan is going to lodge a false charge against me, and I want
your help!"

"If it is false," said the Judge, "you want help from no one."

"Caw, caw, caw!" said the Crow, "you understand me." Then this vulgar
Crow winked one eye at the Judge.

"Hm, hm," said the Judge, looking at the Crow. It is a pity to say it,
but it is quite true, that this Judge was an unjust Judge; and he was
ready to give any decision, right or wrong, so long as he was bribed
well for his trouble. In that country, you see, there was no jury to
decide matters, but all power lay in the hands of the Judge.

The Judge winked one eye at the Crow. Then he said, very softly, "~What
will you give me?~"

"Silver and gold have I none," said the Crow, "but I'll tell you what I
will do. I'll carry your father's bones to the Holy Land, and bury them
in Jerusalem, and then your father will be sure to go to heaven."

The Judge was so foolish that he really believed his father would go to
heaven at once, if only his bones were buried in Jerusalem, although his
father had been as wicked as himself while he was alive. So he agreed to
the Crow's proposal.