If he could once get him there, he felt sure that
Farmer Brown's boy would see the nest and climb up to it, and then
of course he would take the eggs. If he couldn't have those eggs
himself, the next best thing would be to see some one else get them.
Dear me, dear me, such dreadful thoughts! I am afraid that Blacky's
heart was as black as his coat. And the worst of it was, he seemed
to get a lot of pleasure in his wicked plans. Now right down in his
heart he knew that they were wicked plans, but he tried to make
excuses to himself.
"Hooty the Owl is a robber, " said he. "Everybody is afraid of
him. He lives on other people, and so far as I know he does no good
in the world. He is big and fierce, and no one loves him. The Green
Forest would be better off without him. If those eggs hatch, there
will be little Owls to be fed, and they will grow up into big fierce
Owls, like their father and mother. So if I show Farmer Brown's boy
that nest and he takes those eggs, I will be doing a kindness to my
neighbors."
So Blacky talked to himself and tried to hush the still, small voice
down inside that tried to tell him that what he was planning to do
was really a dreadful thing. And all the time he watched for Farmer
Brown's boy.
CHAPTER X: Farmer Brown's Boy And Hooty
Farmer Brown's boy had taken it into his head to visit the Green
Forest. It was partly because he hadn't anything else to do, and it
was partly because now that it was very near the end of winter he
wanted to see how things were there and if there were any signs of
the coming of spring.
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