34 THE SPRING OF THE YEAR 



luck to escape his enemies, until he can get three 

 new feathers to take the places of those that are 

 missing. " Well, why does n't he get them ? " you 

 ask. If you were that crow, how would you get them ? 

 Can a crow, by taking thought, add three new feath- 

 ers to his wing? 



Certainly not. That crow must wait until wing- 

 feather season comes again, just as an apple tree 

 must wait until apple-growing season comes to hang 

 its boughs with luscious fruit. The crow has nothing 

 to do with it. His wing feathers are supplied by Na- 

 ture once a year (after the nesting-time), and if a 

 crow loses any of them, even if right after the 

 new feathers had been supplied, that crow will have 

 to wait until the season for wing feathers comes 

 around once more if indeed he can wait and does 

 not fall a prey to hawk or owl or the heavy odds of 

 winter. 



But Nature is not going to be hurried on that ac< 

 count, nor caused to change one jot or tittle from 

 her wise and methodical course. The Bible says 

 that the hairs of our heads are numbered, So are 

 the feathers on a crow's body. Nature knows just 

 how many there are altogether ; how many there 

 are of each sort primaries, secondaries, tertials, 

 greater coverts, middle coverts, lesser coverts, and 

 scapulars in the wing; just how each sort is 

 arranged; just when each sort is to be moulted and 

 renewed. If Master Crow does not take care of his 



