JIM CROW 145 



how Jim Crow had been trying to square himself 

 with him, when he knew very well that he would do 

 anything evil if the opportunity presented itself. 



However, Jim and his family were not all bad, as 

 during the month of May a fourth of his food con- 

 sisted of May beetles which he had killed on the big 

 farm, and which would have destroyed thousands of 

 grain plants. Then in June he ate caterpillars, get- 

 ting hunself ready for July, August, and September 

 when he ate grasshoppers by the thousands, in 

 fact twenty per cent of his diet was grasshoppers. 

 He taught the youngsters how to catch these insects 

 and the family did a great work by devouring 

 the bug, which would have otherwise been most 

 harmful to the crops, so that in the months from 

 October to January, Jim Crow felt that he was en- 

 titled to take toll of the corn crop for helping pro- 

 duce it. 



One evening in August Jim thought it wise to in- 

 troduce his family into society, as did other parents 

 of the community, so they called a great meeting 

 one afternoon and arranged that they would all meet 

 the next evening, several miles to the west of the 

 big farm, in a dense grove of trees which bordered 

 the stream that ran through that part of the country. 

 So the next day, as the great red sun was slowly 



