142 A PROBLEM IN BLACK. 
The rooks fed, and attended his funeral 
solemnly. 
Next dawn came with driving torrents of 
rain and a howling half-gale from the south- 
west. 
You behold our rook and his chosen 
gang beating upwind, straight to the nearest 
ploughed field. There, throughout the morn- 
ing, they revelled in a banquet of worms and 
noxious grubs. 
In the afternoon the farmer, gun in hand, 
looking for the stealers of his eggs and the 
slayers of his rabbits, discovered them in 
the meadows, peacefully scattered among the 
sheep, digging up those fearful pests, the 
‘leather - jackets,’ or grubs of the daddy- 
long-legs. And then that farmer scratched 
his head. 
‘Now what,’ said he, ‘ought I to do with 
birds like that ?’ 
