squirrels, of course, would not 
touch them, and Jim Crow 
cared for a dead bobolink only 
because it made a soft play- 
thing for him to pick up and 
drop from his perch in the fig = 
bush time and time again. — | 1 
But the coming of the bobolinks soon devel 
a very dreadful experience for him. 
Howard, I regret to say, took a great interest 
in all this bird shooting, and one morning when 
he shouldered his gun and started down toward 
the rice-fields, Jim Crow was seized with a desire 
to follow. The bird climbed through the big 
gate of the barn lot and went marching down 
the plantation road after him. By and by he 
came to where the road runs along close beside 
a rail fence. The fence corners were all grown 
up with weeds and bushes in which any small 
animal might hide if it sodesired. Jim Crow was 
not thinking of this and was very much startled 
when a great wildcat walked out into the road in 
front of him. Jim gave one frightened look. 
“Tt’s hot! he screamed and rushed for the fence. 
142 
