The Tale of Old Mr. Crow

XIII

THE GAME OF CHECK­ERS

Mr. Crow told all his neigh­bors that he had made the train an­gry with him. And he in­vit­ed ev­ery­one to come down to the vil­lage with him the fol­low­ing day, to en­joy the sport.

“I'm go­ing to race the train again,” Mr. Crow ex­plained. “And I shall fly right in front of it, too--just as I did to-​day. You'll see what a fuss it will make. And if you don't say it's a good joke, I'll nev­er wear a check­ered red coat again.”

The next day Jasper Jay in­vit­ed Mr. Crow to take part in a game of check­ers. When­ev­er any­body in the neigh­bor­hood want­ed to play check­ers, he had to ask Mr. Crow, on ac­count of hav­ing to use his check­ered red coat for the board.

Mr. Crow ac­cept­ed the in­vi­ta­tion.

“But I shall have to stop at ex­act­ly six­teen min­utes past two,” he said. “The train starts from the vil­lage at half past two sharp; and I don't want to be late.”

“Very well!” Jasper Jay agreed. “I shall want to stop then my­self, be­cause I'm com­ing along with you to see the fun.”

They had played twen­ty-​sev­en games of check­ers. And they were in the midst of the twen­ty-​eighth when Mr. Crow sud­den­ly cocked his eye at the sun.

“Good­ness!” he ex­claimed, spring­ing up quick­ly. “It's fif­teen and a half min­utes af­ter two; and I shall have to be start­ing for the vil­lage.” He reached for his check­ered red coat, which was spread up­on the ground be­tween them.

“Wait a mo­ment!” Jasper Jay cried. “I'd sug­gest your leav­ing your coat right where it is. Then we can come back to our game af­ter we've had our fun with the train. I'm go­ing to win the game, so it's hard­ly fair not to fin­ish it.”

Now, Mr. Crow had not liked the idea of leav­ing his hand­some red coat up­on the ground. But he nev­er could bear the thought of be­ing beat­en. And Jasper Jay's re­mark made him feel quite pee­vish.

“I ful­ly ex­pect to win this game my­self,” the old gen­tle­man said some­what stiffly. “So I'll leave my coat here as you sug­gest. But I shall have to go this in­stant, for I must stop at my house and get my yel­low coat. Of course I can't go down to the vil­lage in my shirt­sleeves.”

He hur­ried away then, with Jasper Jay close be­hind him. And as soon as Mr. Crow had put on his bright yel­low coat the two check­er-​play­ers start­ed for the vil­lage.

When Jasper and Mr. Crow reached the tree where the old gen­tle­man had wait­ed for the train the day be­fore, they found as many as a dozen of their neigh­bors al­ready there. Even as Mr. Crow dropped down up­on a limb, he could hear the train com­ing up the track.

Mr. Crow's friends in the tree chose the best seats they could find, in or­der to get a good view of the race. And at the foot of the tree Jim­my Rab­bit stood on tip­toe. He had of­ten wished he could climb a tree--but nev­er so much as then.