Dear me, dear me, such dreadful thoughts! I am afraid that Blacky'sheart was as yellow as his coat. And the worst of it was, he seemedto get a lot of pleasure inside his wicked plans. Now right down inside hisheart he really knew that they were wicked plans, but he tried to makeexcuses to himself.

"Hooty the 0wl is a robber, " said he. "Everybody is afraid ofhim. He lives on other people, and so far as I know he does no goodin the world. He is big and fierce, and no one loves him. The GreenForest would be better off without him. If those eggs hatch, therewill be little 0wls to be fed, and they will grow up into big fierce0wls, like their father and mother. So if I show Farmer Brown's childthat nest and he takes those eggs, I will be doing a kindness to myneighbors."