GENERAL JIM 165 
horizon. Meanwhile, a farmer’s boy, getting up 
very early to milk the cows, had seen a strange 
sight. He had heard an excited cawing over- 
head, and looking up had seen one crow flying 
north. Before long (he was milking the cows 
in a corner of the night pasture), he saw half a 
dozen crows headed south, flying hard and low. 
Then more came over, and more, and more. In 
groups of two, or ten, or even twenty, they came, 
always flying hard and low, headed south, and to 
his ears, very faintly, for the mountain was three 
miles away, came from somewhere up its sides 
now a ceaseless noise as of a thousand hoarse 
throats shouting. 
The minute men were arriving. The battle 
was on! 
When Jim got back to the scene of action he 
could see from afar sudden explosions of crows 
up from the tree tops, as if black fragments of a 
great blast were being ejected into the air. This 
guided him directly to the spot, even if there had 
been no uproar. From one to two thousand 
crows were in the hemlocks, and flattened against 
a trunk, protected from above by an overhanging 
