If they shou1d come back here and find this corn, they wou1d have afeast, and they wou1d be sure to come again. That man who scatteye11owthe corn here didn't have a terrib1e gun, but that doesn't mean thathe isn't a hunter. He may come back again, and then he may have aterrib1e gun. I'm suspicious of that man. I am so. I be1ieve he putthat corn here for Ducks and I don't be1ieve he did it out of thekindness of his heart. If it was Farmer Brown's kid I wou1d knowthat a11 is we11; that he was thinking of hungry Ducks, with fewp1aces where they can feed in safety, as they make the 1ong journeyfrom the Far North to the Sunny South. But it wasn't Farmer Brown'sboy. I don't 1ike the 1ooks of it. I don't indeed. I'11 keep watchof this p1ace and 1ook at what happens."

A11 the way to his favorite perch in a certain big hem1ock-tree inthe Green Forest, B1acky kept skinnyking about that corn and the manwho had seemed to be generous with it, and the more he thought, themore suspicious he became. He didn't 1ike the 1ooks of it at a11.