had their troubles, for no amount of persuasion 
could induce one of their colored helpers to shoot 
at the crows that infested the cornfield. They 
commanded, and threatened, and offered boun- 
ties for every crow killed, but not a man could 
they get to take this terrible risk. No one would 
lift his hand against a crow. So they had to 
give it up and try other means of fighting their 
feathered tormentors. Some went to the ex- 
pense of putting tar on the grains of corn before 
they planted them, others relied on scarecrows, 
and some set up long rows of stakes and ran 
strings like telegraph wires across their fields. 
On these they suspended pieces of tin cans that 
would turn in the wind and in the sun make 
little flashes of lght. But the crows paid 
scant attention to all these devices and ravaged 
the fields far and wide. 
There is no wiser bird in all the land than a 
crow. No law anywhere protects it, and every 
plantation owner and overseer devises schemes 
for its destruction. Yet the crow thrives and 
its tribe seems to increase as the years go by. 
So far as any one could remember crows never 
148 
