The crow was flying high in the air, and would have gone over but the muffled cry of the owl--hoo! hoo! hoo! hoo!--caught its ear and it paused in its flight, alighting in the top of a tall pine. Swinging in this airy outlook, it sent forth its hoarse signals, and in a few minutes the pine was black with its companions, all making a tremendous outcry. Some of them dropped down into the tops of the scrub-oaks. They could not find the owl, but they caught sight of the hawks, and sounded their war-cry. Such cawing, screaming, fluttering, and fighting Joe Maxwell had never seen before. The hawks escaped from the crows, but they left many of their feathers on the battle-field. One of the hawks did not wholly escape, for in his fright he flew out of the woods into the open, and there he was pounced on by a kingbird, which Jim-Polk called a bee martin. This little bird, not larger than his cousin, the catbird, lit on the hawk's back and stayed there as long as they remained in sight. The commotion set up by the crows had attracted the attention of all the birds, except the smallest, and they flew about in the trees, uttering notes of anger or alarm, all trying to find the owl. The incident was very interesting to Joe Maxwell. He discovered that the owl is the winged Ishmael of the woods, the most hated and most feared of all the birds. A few days afterward he went with Harbert to see the hogs fed, and he told the negro how all the birds seemed to hate the owl. “Lord! yes, sah!” said Harbert, who seemed to know all about the matter. “Ain't you never is hear tell er de tale 'bout de owl an' de yuther birds? Ole man Remus tole it ter me dis many a year ago, an' sence den I bin hear talk about it mo' times dan what I got fingers an' toes.” Of course, Joe wanted to hear-- THE STORY OF THE OWL. “Well, suh,” said Harbert, “hit run sorter like dis: One time way back yander, fo' ole man Remus wuz born'd, I speck, all de birds wuz in cahoots; dem what fly in de air, an' dem what walk on de groun', an' dem what swim on de water--all un um. Dey all live in one settlement, an' whatsomever dey mought pick up endurin' er de day, dey'd fetch it ter der place wharbouts dey live at, an' put it wid de rest what de yuther ones bin a-ketchin' an' a-fetchin'.