human
I guess I'll have to stop whistling for Ruddy when I come home from school, said Rick to his mother one day, when he had come in with his books, and had been told that Haw-Haw had played the trick three times on the setter that afternoon.
gpt
It's too bad to plague him that way. I won't whistle any more when I come along.
human
I guess it would be just as well not to, agreed Mrs. Dalton.
gpt
Haw-Haw is too smart for Ruddy. And he has another trick, too, Rick.
human
You mean Haw-Haw has?
gpt
Yes, he took some spoons off the kitchen table to-day and dropped them in the hollow of a tree in front of the house. I saw him, or I wouldn't have known about it. It's quite a deep hollow and I could hardly reach down in and get the spoons. And what else do you think I found down in there?
human
I don't know. Was it my roller skate key that I lost?
gpt
No, but it was the new tea strainer I lost. That disappeared last week. Haw-Haw must have carried it off. I have heard that crows like to pick up shiny things and hide them, but this is the first time our crow had done such a trick.
human
Say, he's a regular trick crow; isn't he?
gpt
Too much so! laughed Mrs. Dalton.
human
I must watch him.
gpt
And I must try to teach him some more words to say, went on Rick.
human
He can almost say 'I want my supper' now.
gpt
Well, I'm glad you think it sounds like something, said Rick's mother.
human
To me your crow's talk only resembles a lot of screeching and jabbering.
gpt
Oh, he'll learn to talk all right, declared Rick.
human
I'm going to teach him now.