`` You do n't wish it half as much as I do , '' declared Mrs. Quack . `` Yet I can remember when he used to hunt with a terrible gun and was as bad as the worst of them , '' said Blacky . `` What changed him ? '' asked Mrs. Quack , looking interested . `` Just getting really acquainted with some of the little people of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows , '' replied Blacky . `` He found them ready to meet him more than halfway in friendship and that some of them really are his best friends . '' `` And now he is their best friend , '' spoke up Peter . Blacky nodded . `` Right , Peter , '' said he . `` That is why the Quacks are safe here and will be as long as they stay . '' CHAPTER XV : Blacky Does A Little Looking About Do not take the word of others That things are or are not so When there is a chance that you may Find out for yourself and know . -- Blacky the Crow . Blacky the Crow is a shrewd fellow . He is one of the smartest and shrewdest of all the little people in the Green Forest and on the Green Meadows . Everybody knows it . And because of this , all his neighbors have a great deal of respect for him , despite his mischievous ways . Of course , Blacky had noticed that Johnny Chuck had dug his house deeper than usual and had stuffed himself until he was fatter than ever before . He had noticed that Jerry Muskrat was making the walls of his house thicker than in other years , and that Paddy the Beaver was doing the same thing to his house . You know there is very little that escapes the sharp eyes of Blacky the Crow . He had guessed what these things meant .
`` They think we are going to have a long , hard , cold winter , '' muttered XXXXX to himself .
Beaver Blacky Chuck Forest Green Meadows Quack Right XV years