REASON. 
135 
the staff of life, minus the butter!)—on the grass; the 
girl had not gone many paces, when down swoops the 
Crow from a tremendous height, picks up the dainty 
slice, and flies away with the same to her nest, utterly 
regardless of the outcry made by the rightful owner. 
In those days the farming lads on the estate wore the 
short jackets, then the fashion in those parts, and always 
carried their breakfast with them in the pockets of that 
garment. When the sun was well up they used to lay 
their jackets aside on the bank at one end of the field, so 
as to enable them to plough with greater comfort. One 
fine morning, as soon as the men were far enough off, 
down comes our friend the Crow, pulls out one lad’s 
breakfast and flies off with it. The despoiled one was 
well laughed at by his companions, who vowed that 
they would take very good care and not be robbed in a 
similar manner. The next day they laid their jackets 
with the pockets carefully covered up, and so folded as to 
lie quite undermost. This time the bird quietly allowed 
the ploughmen to get so far away that they could not see 
the bank, owing to the unevenness of the ground; this 
done the Crow descended, turned the jackets upside 
down, and, after making a good feed, decamped with a 
nice supply for her family! After this the men were 
obliged to weight the clothes with heavy stones, so as to 
prevent the bird from continuing her depredations. 
“ In the meantime the Crow had become aware of the 
benefits arising from inspection of the men’s clothing; 
and from that time she examined every jacket she came 
across in either the yard or the out-buildings. When the 
shepherds happened to have any pieces of bread over 
from their breakfast, they used to put it in the pockets of 
an old stable-jacket, which hung at the open stable-door. 
