Outing . skyaflame, turn both birds into coal devils,on a coal tree, performing contortionsabove a cliff of coal—all in silhouetteagainst a silently raging furnace. The dawning found them hard at it—purple goblins now, against a sky ofperfect pink, floating on blue-gray andpurple mists—for the nest building ofthe raven is no sparrows task. A wheel-barrow load of sticks alone, each sticktested separately for flaws, rot, anddamp, comprise the outer works of theblack ones castle, and these, gatheredsingly, often from great distance, arenot easy to collect. About noon a speck—as it were an antcraw
Outing . skyaflame, turn both birds into coal devils,on a coal tree, performing contortionsabove a cliff of coal—all in silhouetteagainst a silently raging furnace. The dawning found them hard at it—purple goblins now, against a sky ofperfect pink, floating on blue-gray andpurple mists—for the nest building ofthe raven is no sparrows task. A wheel-barrow load of sticks alone, each sticktested separately for flaws, rot, anddamp, comprise the outer works of theblack ones castle, and these, gatheredsingly, often from great distance, arenot easy to collect. About noon a speck—as it were an antcrawling up the opposite hill—appearedfar below. Anon it stopped and wasstill—the ant had discovered a grain,perhaps. But it was no ant. It was aman, a collectors agent, which, thoughlarger, was scarcely of greater worththan the ant he appeared to be. He wasgazing through binoculars, prismaticbinoculars to be exact, and when the nestcame within their field he great black birds needed no. HIS MATE DROPPED, A BLACK SHADOW, FROM THE CLOUDS. binoculars to show them this scourge indetail, and they smiled, too. I swearthey did, or was it a passing cloud shad-ow that made them appear to smirk, ora gull skimming high overhead thatlaughed ? Day after day that antlike speckcrawled aslant the opposite slope andleered a lustful leer through binocu-lars at the nest, and day after day oneor other raven labored thereat, callingdown maledictions on all collectors andtheir brood, and daily the nest grew froma notch to a bunch, from a bunch toa skeleton castle, and from that to alandmark. And the agent grinned—forhe was very young, that agent. Thiswas his first dealing with the king of theblack fraternity. On the other hand the ravens werevery old. Now the raven is born a childof the devil. With the years his cun-ning and knowledge of evil increase, andthe getting the better of him is likely tofall neither to the young nor to the head- strong. No flies settle on your raven,
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade, booksubjectsports, booksubjecttravel
