“He has a broken leg, and I couldn’t leave him in the woods for some savage creature to get, so I brought him home so Grad could see his leg is properly set.”
“That is another thing. Of course you couldn’t let any creature suffer.”
“Where is Grad?”
“In the library. I have been worried to death about you. What made you so late?”
“The crow,” Joanne answered picking up the basket and walking out of the room. Why was it her grandmother so often rubbed her the wrong way? She had come home feeling happy and amiable and now was all ruffled up. Well, Claudia had advised her not to be snappish, but to cultivate a sweet serenity, for her grandmother couldn’t help not having a keen sense of humor, and there was no way to mend matters, except by controlling one’s temper. “It isn’t possible for your grandmother to see things as you do, but it is possible for you not to get mad about it,” Claudia had told her.
“Well, well, well,” her grandfather greeted her. “Back again safe and sound. Have a good time?”
“We had a perfectly scrumptious time, and almost all our greens are spoken for. What the families and friends of the girls and boys don’t take the churches will, so we feel we have done a good day’s work.”
Here Jim Crow spoke up from his basket. “Caw, caw,” he said protestingly.
“What have you got there?” inquired Dr. Selden curiously.
Joanne lifted the lid of the basket and produced the crow. “A patient for you. Hal fixed his leg the best he could but I want you to look at it and see if it is all right. We found him in the woods.” She took the bird over to her grandfather who examined it carefully, not, however, without some objection on the part of Jim Crow.