“That is what they say up in the Far North,” replied Mrs. Quack.  “And it is true that Jack Frost had started down earlier than usual.  That is how it happens we are here now.  But about those hunters over by the Big River, do you suppose they will come over here?” There was an anxious note in Mrs. Quack’s voice.

“No,” replied Blacky promptly.  “Farmer Brown’s boy won’t let them.  I know.  I’ve been watching him and he has been watching those hunters.  As long as you stay here, you will be safe.  What a great world this would be if all those two-legged creatures were like Farmer Brown’s boy.”

“Wouldn’t it!” cried Peter.  Then he added, “I wish they were.”

“You don’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 Blacky to himself.  “Perhaps they know, but I want to see some signs of it for myself.  They may be only guessing.  Anybody can do that, and one guess is as good as another.”

Then he found Mr. and Mrs. Quack, the Mallard Ducks, and their children in the pond of Paddy the Beaver and remembered that they never had come down from their home in the Far North as early in the fall as this.  Mrs. Quack explained that Jack Frost had already started south, and so they had started earlier to keep well ahead of him.