"I guess it would be just as well not to," agreed Mrs. Dalton. "Haw-Haw is too smart for Ruddy. And he has another trick, too, Rick."
"You mean Haw-Haw has?"
"Yes, he took some spoons off the kitchen table to-day and dropped them in the hollow of a tree in front of the house. I saw him, or I wouldn't have known about it. It's quite a deep hollow and I could hardly reach down in and get the spoons. And what else do you think I found down in there?"
"I don't know. Was it my roller skate key that I lost?"
"No, but it was the new tea strainer I lost. That disappeared last week. Haw-Haw must have carried it off. I have heard that crows like to pick up shiny things and hide them, but this is the first time our crow had done such a trick."
"Say, he's a regular trick crow; isn't he?" exclaimed Rick.
"Too much so!" laughed Mrs. Dalton. "I must watch him."
"And I must try to teach him some more words to say," went on Rick. "He can almost say 'I want my supper' now."
"Well, I'm glad you think it sounds like something," said Rick's mother. "To me your crow's talk only resembles a lot of screeching and jabbering."
"Oh, he'll learn to talk all right," declared Rick. "I'm going to teach him now."