`` Seems to me these husks are unusually thick , '' muttered Blacky , as he tore at them with his stout bill . `` Do n't remember ever having seen them as thick as these . Wonder if it just happens to be so on this ear . '' Then , as a sudden thought popped into his black head , he left that ear and went to another . The husks of this were as thick as those on the first . He flew to another shock and found the husks there just the same . He tried a third shock with the same result . `` Huh , they are all alike , '' said he . Then he looked thoughtful and for a few minutes sat perfectly still like a black statue . `` They are right , '' said he at last . `` Yes , Sir , they are right . '' Of course he meant Johnny Chuck and Jerry Muskrat and Paddy the Beaver and the Quacks . `` I do n't know how they know it , but they are right ; we are going to have a long , hard , cold winter . I know it myself now . I 've found a sign . Old Mother Nature has wrapped this corn in extra thick husks , and of course she has done it to protect it . She does n't do things without a reason . We are going to have a cold winter , or my name is n't Blacky the Crow . '' CHAPTER XVI : Blacky Finds Other Signs A single fact may fail to prove you either right or wrong ; Confirm it with another and your proof will then be strong . -- Blacky the Crow .
After his discovery that Old Mother Nature had wrapped all the ears of corn in extra thick husks , Blacky had no doubt in his own mind that Johnny Chuck and Jerry Muskrat and Paddy the Beaver and the Quacks were quite XXXXX in feeling that the coming winter would be long , hard and cold .
Beaver Blacky Chuck Mother Muskrat first husks left right third