150 ON THE EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS 
flight feathers, and Jim never saw them again. 
He flew around the garden cawing for them, but 
they did not appear. The next day, when he 
woke up and flew to the bedroom window, he 
found the window closed. He pecked at the 
glass, and made a loud noise, but nothing hap- 
pened. Don was gone, too. No scraps were 
put out for him at breakfast time. Wondering 
and disconsolate, he flew around the deserted gar- 
den, and fed himself that day by watching the 
corn shocks standing in the field, and pouncing on 
the mice which ran in and out under them. That 
night he was bitterly cold upon the ridgepole, and 
without Jim and Jim to protect he saw no reason 
why he should remain on it. So he sought the 
ladder under the eaves—but that was gone! He 
flew over to a pine tree, and got in among the 
branches. There was no wind there, nor could 
any hawk see him from above while he slept. 
Toward morning he heard a noise overhead, a 
noise of many wings in steady beat, and now and 
then a caw. A great flock of crows were going 
south. Something stirred in him, some instinct 
to rise high into the air and join them. But he 
