Farmer Brown 's boy 's fingers closed over that egg and took it out of the nest . Mrs. Hooty swooped very close , and Farmer Brown 's boy nearly dropped the egg as he struck at her with his stick . Then Mrs. Hooty and Hooty seemed to lose courage and withdrew to a tree near by , where they snapped their bills and hissed . Then Farmer Brown 's boy looked at the prize in his hand . It was a big , dirty-white egg . His eyes shone . What a splendid prize to add to his collection of birds ' eggs ! It was the first egg of the Great Horned Owl , the largest of all Owls , that he ever had seen . Once more he felt in the nest and found there was another egg there . `` I 'll take both of them , '' said he . `` It 's the first nest of Hooty 's that I 've ever found , and perhaps I 'll never find another . Gee , I 'm glad I came over here to find out what those Crows were making such a fuss about . I wonder if I can get these clown without breaking them . '' Just at that very minute he remembered something . He remembered that he had stopped collecting eggs . He remembered that he had resolved never to take another bird 's egg . `` But this is different , '' whispered the tempter . `` This is n't like taking the eggs of the little song birds . '' CHAPTER XII : A Tree-Top Battle As black is black and white is white , So wrong is wrong and right is right . There is n't any half way about it .
A thing is wrong or it is XXXXX , and that is all there is to it .
Brown Crows Hooty XII first minute nest right tempter tree