CHILDHOOD 19 



in the roadway, but alas ! a cart-wheel had passed 

 over him. My grief was great, and my mother 

 said to me, " You could not cry more for any 

 of us!" 



While at the farm I reared a crow, which was 

 a source of great amusement, not only to me, 

 but to our many friends. This bird was allowed 

 large liberty, was very tame, and with the tradi- 

 tional crow propensity for mischief, played many 

 pranks, both edifying and provoking, and some 

 of them almost inconceivable. He would pick a 

 rose from the garden, bring it to the steps of the 

 piazza, and then carefully remove each petal, lay- 

 ing them in a pile. After this was finished, one 

 by one he would carefully remove each leaf to the 

 step below, making a new heap there. There 

 were three steps to this piazza, and for hours he 

 would move his rose-leaves from one step to 

 another, up and down, seeming to find infinite 

 satisfaction in the process. The whole was 

 accompanied by much gabble, doubtless in crow 

 language, which seemed to me to indicate at 

 times great pleasure, and at other times rage 

 and irritation, when the wind would disturb 

 his pile of leaves and he had to restore order 

 from chaos. Certainly he was a droll, amusing 

 fellow. 



Two pairs of tame mice were not so edifying 

 to the family as they were to me, and became so 



