<h5 id="id00076">THE GIANT SCARECROW</h5>
<p id="id00077" style="margin-top: 2em">Farmer Green always claimed that Mr. Crow was a ruffian and a robber.</p>
<p id="id00078">"That old chap has been coming here every summer for years," he said to
his son Johnnie one day. "I always know him when I see him, because he's
the biggest of all the crows that steal my corn."</p>
<p id="id00079">That was Farmer Green's way of looking at a certain matter. But old Mr.<br/>
Crow regarded it otherwise. He knew well enough what Farmer Green thought<br/>
of his trick of digging up the newly planted corn. And his own idea and<br/>
Farmer Green's did not agree at all.<br/></p>
<p id="id00080">Now, this matter was something that old Mr. Crow never mentioned unless
somebody else spoke of it first. And then Mr. Crow would shake his head
slowly, and sigh, and say:</p>
<p id="id00081">"It's strange that Farmer Green doesn't understand how much I help him.
I'm as busy as I can be all summer long, destroying insects that injure
his crops. And since I help Farmer Green to raise his corn, I'm sure I
have as good a right to a share of it as the horses that plough the
field, or the men that hoe it. Farmer Green gives them corn to eat.
But he never once thinks of giving me any."</p>
<p id="id00082">You see, there are always two sides to every question. And that was Mr.<br/>
Crow's. But Farmer Green never knew how Mr. Crow felt about the matter.<br/>
And every spring, at corn-planting time, he used to set up scarecrows<br/>
in his cornfield, hoping that they would frighten the crows away.<br/></p>
<p id="id00083">And so they did. At least, some of the younger crows were afraid of those
straw-stuffed dummies, with their hats tipped over their faces, or upon
one side, and their empty sleeves flapping in the winds that swept
through the valley. But old Mr. Crow was too wise to be fooled so easily.
He would scratch up the corn at the very feet of a scarecrow—and chuckle
at the same time.</p>
<p id="id00084">It must not be supposed that Farmer Green did not know what was going
on. He often caught sight of Mr. Crow in the cornfield. But it always
happened that Mr. Crow saw him too. And Farmer Green could never get
near the old rogue.</p>
<p id="id00085">At last Johnnie Green's father spent a whole evening trying to think of
some way in which to outwit Mr. Crow. And by bedtime he had hit upon a
plan that he liked.</p>
<p id="id00086">The next day, with Johnnie to help him, he set to work to build a monster
scarecrow. It was twice as high as the tallest man that was ever seen.
And for a hat Farmer Green set on its straw head a huge tin pan, which
glittered when the sun shone upon it.</p>
<p id="id00087">"That'll fix him!" said Farmer Green, as he stood off and looked at the
giant. And as for his son Johnnie, he danced up and down and shouted—he
was so pleased.</p>
<p id="id00088">But Mr. Crow was not pleased when he flew toward the cornfield the next
day and saw the great figure of a man there, with a terrible glittering
helmet upon his head. And Mr. Crow noticed something upon the giant's
shoulder that looked very like a gun.</p>
<p id="id00089">The old gentleman swerved quickly to one side and never stopped his
flight until he had reached the woods.</p>
<p id="id00090">And that night Farmer Green felt quite merry.</p>
<p id="id00091">"I've scared that old crow away at last," he said.</p>
<h2 id="id00092" style="margin-top: 4em">IV</h2>
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