when blacky cries “caw, caw, caw, caw!” as if he'd dislocate his jaw, his relatives all hasten where he waits them with a crafty air. they know that there is mischief afoot, and the crow family is always ready for mischief. so on this particular morning when they heard blacky cawing at the top of his lungs from the tallest pine-tree in the green forest, they hastened over there as fast as they could fly, calling to each other excitedly and sure that they were going to have a good time of some kind.

blacky chuckled as he saw them coming. “come on! come on! caw, caw, caw! hurry up and flap your wings faster. i know where hooty the owl is, and we'll have no end of fun with him,” he cried.

“caw, caw, caw, caw, caw, caw!” shouted all his relatives in great glee. “where is he? lead us to him. we'll drive him out of the green forest!”

so blacky led the way over to the most lonesome corner of the green forest, straight to the tree in which hooty the owl was comfortably sleeping. blacky had taken pains to slip over early that morning and make sure just where he was. he had discovered hooty fast asleep, and he knew that he would remain right where he was until dark. you know hooty's eyes are not meant for much use in bright light, and the brighter the light, the more uncomfortable his eyes feel. blacky knows this, too, and he had chosen the very brightest part of the morning to call his relatives over to torment poor hooty. jolly, round, bright mr. sun was shining his very brightest, and the white snow on the ground made it seem brighter still. even blacky had to blink, and he knew that poor hooty would find it harder still.

but one thing blacky was very careful not to even hint of, and that was that mrs. hooty was right close at hand. mrs. hooty is bigger and even more fierce than hooty, and blacky didn't want to frighten any of the more timid of his relatives. what he hoped down deep in his crafty heart was that when they got to teasing and tormenting hooty and making the great racket which he knew they would, mrs. hooty would lose her temper and fly over to join hooty in trying to drive away the black tormentors. then blacky would slip over to the nest which she had left unguarded and steal one and perhaps both of the eggs he knew were there.

when they reached the tree where hooty was, he was blinking his great yellow eyes and had fluffed out all his feathers, which is a way he has when he is angry, to make himself look twice as big as he really is. of course, he had heard the noisy crew coming, and he knew well enough what to expect. as soon as they saw him, they began to scream as loud as ever they could and to call him all manner of names. the boldest of them would dart at him as if to pull out a mouthful of feathers, but took the greatest care not to get too near. you see, the way hooty hissed and snapped his great bill was very threatening, and they knew that if once he got hold of one of them with those big cruel claws of his, that would be the end.

so they were content to simply scold and scream at him and fly around him, just out of reach, and make him generally uncomfortable, and they were so busy doing this that no one noticed that blacky was not joining in the fun, and no one paid any attention to the old tumble-down nest of redtail the hawk only a few trees distant. so far blacky's plans were working out just as he had hoped.