"I SAW SECOND COUSIN GEORGE FOLLOWING HIM."
One day after the crow was able to walk about the garden, I saw Second Cousin George following him. I could not help laughing, for they were so much alike. They both were fat and short, and dressed in black. Both put their feet down in an awkward manner, carried their heads on one side, and held themselves back as they walked. They had about an equal amount of sense.
In some respects, though, the crow was a little ahead of Second Cousin George, and in some respects he was not, for on this occasion Second Cousin George was making a kind of death-noose for him, and the crow walked quietly behind the currant-bushes, never suspecting it. I ran for grandmother, and she slipped quickly out into the garden.
"Second Cousin George, what are you doing?" she said, quietly.
He always looked up at the sky when he didn't know what to say, and as she spoke, he eyed very earnestly some white clouds that were floating overhead, and said never a word.
"Were you playing with this cord?" said grandmother, taking it from him. "What a fine loop you have in it!" She threw it dexterously over his head. "Oh, I have caught you!" she said, with a little laugh, and began pulling on the string.
Second Cousin George still stood with his face turned up to the sky, his cheeks growing redder and redder.
"Why, I am choking you!" said grandmother, before she had really hurt him; "do let me unfasten it." Then she took the string off his neck and put it in her pocket. "Crows can feel pain just as men do, Second Cousin George," she said, and walked away.