Solomon Crow's Christmas Pockets and Other Tales

wild bird up to that time, swimming in the bay, playing hide-and-seek with her brothers and sisters and cousins among the marsh

agrant with the aroma of raw fish, and was in all respects a dashing beau. Indeed, she was behaving most coyly, daintily swimming in graceful cur

his grandfather, and his grandfather's gun did

aspberry bushes in the farmer's yard craned their necks, blinked, and didn't swallow another berry for fully ten seconds. And a beautiful green caterpillar, that had seen the great red rooster mark him with his evil eye, and expected to be gobbled

that caught the volley, they simply tumb

R'S BOY WA

n she "came to" was that she was lying under the farmer boy's coat in an old basket, and that there was a terrific rumbling in her ears and a sh

her chest with his claw, she realized that there was not a cousin in the world, even to some

ad, trying to find some of his own kindred. He had himself been lying in a hole in shall

e both "in the swim," they belonged to different sets, and so

hey understood him fairly well when he was telling the man digging potatoes in the field t

one, half imbedded in the sand, when he was a "soft-shell." He knew their names, because he had studied them before their labels soaked off, and he knew there was no malice in them fo

cans grew in the bay, and so he expected presently to be "biled" in his own home wate

nch stew. She had had relations who had departed life by way of a purée, while others had gone into a sauté or paté. Perhaps a "decoy" was a paté

understood. It is quite a different thing from Pidgin-English, and it isn't all "quack" any more than Frenc

til they stood quite over his cheeks. Maybe some people think crabs have no cheeks, but that is

ere was nothing to be gained by pinching the duck. It only made a row in the basket and got him upset. But, by keeping very still and watching his chance, he managed to climb so near the top that when the basket gave a lurch he simply vaulted overboard and dropped in the field. Then he hid

wanted him to go, for she didn't like his ways. Still, when he had gone,

o has shot a duck walks home with it pretty fast, and this bo

s here that he had brought her. This would seem to be a most happy thing-but there are ducks and ducks. Poor little Quackalina knew the haughty quawk of the proud white ducks of Pekin. She knew that she would be only a poor colored person amo

feared her end was near. There are some trivial thin

ns, and her wing was very painful, but a great discovery soon fill

ell her that they were already decoys, and that the one pleasant thing

its foot tied to the shore, and shots fired all around it, one grew almost to enjoy it. It was s

cousin, Sir Sooty, and she loved pink mallow blossoms. She liked to eat the "m

early well, in its new, drooping shape, what was her joy when he himself actually

otherwise looking quite well, and he hastened to tell her that he

ear the decoy-duck that his foot had caught in its string, and before he could get away the farmer had him f

ACTUALLY WADDLED

ng waddles-or waddling about on long meanders-all over the place, hunting for a cozy hiding-place for a nest. For five whole days they hunted before Quacka

our touch, but they are sad sights to ducks and geese, and Quackalina selected a p

more secure, a friendly golden-rod sprang up quite in front

time she ceased to fear it, but sometimes Sir Sooty had to go,

in this little story, and we

hed and shining like opals. And the early golden-rod that stood on guard b