If something dreadful should happen to Dusky because you were afraid of the dark , you never would be comfortable in your own mind . Stay a little while and keep watch . '' Not five minutes later Blacky saw something that made him , oh , so glad he had kept watch . It was a swiftly moving black line just above the water far down the Big River , and it was coming up . He knew what that black line was . He looked over at the hunter hiding behind some bushes close to the edge of the water . The hunter was crouching with his terrible gun in his hands and was peeping over the bushes , watching that black line . He , too , knew what it was . It was a flock of Ducks flying . Blacky was all ashake again , but this time it was n't with fear of being caught away from home in the dark ; it was with excitement . He knew that those Ducks had become so eager for more of that corn , that delicious yellow corn which every night for a week they had found scattered in the rushes just in front of the place where that hunter was now hiding , that they could n't wait for the coming of the Black Shadows . They were so sure there was no danger that they were coming in to eat without waiting for the Black Shadows , as they usually did . And Blacky was glad . Perhaps now he could give them warning . Up the middle of the Big River , flying just above the water , swept the flock with Dusky at its head . How swiftly they flew , those nine big birds ! Blacky envied them their swift wings . On past the hidden hunter but far out over the Big River they swept . For just a minute Blacky thought they were going on up the river and not coming in to eat , after all . Then they turned toward the other shore , swept around in a circle and headed straight in toward that hidden hunter .
XXXXX glanced at him and saw that he was ready to shoot .
Blacky Ducks Dusky River ashake danger home shore something week