CHAPTER XXI : At Last Blacky Is Sure Who for another conquers fear Is truly brave , it is most clear . -- Blacky the Crow . It was late in the afternoon , and Blacky the Crow was on his way to the Green Forest . As usual , he went around by the Big River to see if that man was scattering corn for the Ducks . He was n't there . No one was to be seen along the bank of the Big River . `` He has n't come to-day , or else he came early and has left , '' thought Blacky . And then his sharp eyes caught sight of something that made him turn aside and make straight for a certain tree , from the top of which he could see all that went on for a long distance . What was it Blacky saw ? It was a boat coming down the Big River . Blacky sat still and watched . Presently the boat turned in among the rushes , and a moment later a man stepped out on the shore . It was the same man Blacky had watched scatter corn in the rushes every day for a week . There was n't the least doubt about it , it was the same man . `` Ha , ha ! '' exclaimed Blacky , and nearly lost his balance in his excitement . `` Ha , ha ! It is just as I thought ! '' You see Blacky 's sharp eyes had seen that the man was carrying something , and that something was a gun , a terrible gun . Blacky knows a terrible gun as far as he can see it .
The hunter , for of course that is what he was , tramped along the shore until he reached the bushes which XXXXX had noticed close to the water and which he knew had not grown there .
Blacky CHAPTER Ducks Forest River XXI afternoon left something week