GENERAL JIM 159 
did stunts in the air, he tried his best to sing (and 
perhaps she thought it was lovely, though no- 
body on the ground did!) ; he sat on a tree limb 
beside her, too, or as near as she would let him, 
and courted her ardently. Jimwasinlove! He 
was gloriously and persistently in love. And his 
persistence won. The object of his adoration at 
last consented to be his bride, and look over trees 
with him, with a view to building. 
They chose a fork high up in a tall pine on the 
mountain, building the rough nest of sticks and 
leaves, and feeding at about that time on corn. 
Jim and his bride and Jim’s three friends, and 
perhaps half a dozen other crows, all of. whom 
were nesting that season up in the pines on the 
mountain, usually hunted corn together, in the 
early morning hours, when nobody but a farmer 
or a Broadway rounder who hasn’t gone to bed, is 
up. The corn was best to eat, as well as easiest 
to find, just after it had sprouted. The tiny 
green shoots above the brown earth exactly lo- 
cated the grain, and made it easy to pull up with- 
out any digging. Then, too, the shoot having 
burst the shell, and the earth having softened it, 
