"If we animals around here were anxious to see him, you can guess that
the peacocks were just about wild, and when the time came for Mr. Crow
to show himself, all the peacocks for as many as five miles around were
gathered under the big tree. Mr. Crow didn't know anything about their
coming, until he marched right out in the midst of them.
[Illustration: Mr. Crow showing his new feathers to the peacocks.]
"Now Mr. Crow is really a wise bird, and how it happened that he was so
foolish as to do what he did, beats me. Anybody with half an eye could
see that he had simply stuck these feathers in his tail, and was trying
to make us believe they had grown there. If he had stayed on the tree
where we couldn't get very near him, there might have been some chance
of deceiving us; but there he was right down where we could put our paws
on him if we wanted to. And the peacocks! Angry? Oh me, oh my, don't say
a word!
"One big one reached over with his beak, and pulled a feather from Mr.
Crow's tail.
"'The next time you set yourself up for one of us, it would be a good
idea to tie the feathers in, else they may drop out, as this one has,'
the peacock said, and I expected to see Mr. Crow almost faint away with
shame. But bless you, he never thought of doing anything of that kind.
He took the feather as bold as a lion, looked at the end of it, and then
he said, careless-like:
"'Well, I declare! I guess I must be moulting,' and with that, off he
flew. We didn't see him again for as much as two weeks, and then he
agreed not to write any poetry about us if we wouldn't tell the story of
the feathers; but young Mr.
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