The well versed crow yarn, by S.C.Jones

The well versed crow yarn

S.C.Jones

Saw the Hale Bopp comet the other night. Got up on my roof in the dark and felt my way down beyond to get a good view. I don't know...I think the stars offer as much if not more to me.

Samuel Clemens came in and left on Haley's comet you know. Yep, that's right. He actually wanted to leave with its arrival in the night sky. I kinda felt his presence up there on the roof the other night. Oh, we had a pleasant enough conversation. Told him I was in disagreement with 'Jim Baker's "Blue Jay Yarn".' Thought he was going to push me off the roof I did. Well, he took it well, but I had to sit up there in the cold night air and explain myself. Him sitting on the peak facing one way, me the other. He listens well.

Now, if you know the Blue Jay Yarn, you know that Jim Baker claimed a Jay to be perhaps the smartest of creatures. A Blue was apt to carry you away with his fond adaptation of this world and could talk an Angel into submission. Something to that effect anyway. Jay's have a reputation to keep up their learnin, and they Teach grammar. That much I knew. But a Jay don't have dominion over a crow.

That's right. Scoff if you will, but a common, ordinary Crow has it over a Jay. Sure, we all know how eloquent a talker a Blue can be and he will come up with the most profane pondering it's true, but have a Jay put thinking behind those words and he will scale down ever so audibly. You may not even hear it, but I have. A Jay will speak with a showy tongue and then think. A Crow will think even while his words are being vocalized. Before they leave his beak he has established the nouns, verbs, and additives in the most proper logical order. He will render them with a sweetness that rivals, and most times Exceeds that of a Jay, all while in mid flight. Now, you try and get a Jay to fly and talk sense. He can, but not consistant. Crows can and do, time and again, and make some of the most wonderful traveling companions in the process too.

Well, it was dark, but I think those words found home with Mr. Clemens. He didn't actually tell me so, but I saw his pipe waver just the slightest. He nodded and I continued...

Now, it's been claimed by Mr. Baker, that the sacredness of an obligation didn't hold up to a Jay's thinking. A Jay, he said would four times out of five go back on his word. Really, Mr. Clemens! How do you expect me to respect a Jay and credit him with laurels and degree, when he doesn't even know the sense of obligation! Even in his teaching, a Jay will sometimes digress, and he doesn't always show up for class either. No, a Jay is awful smart, but a Jay is not the smartest and he is not the most poetic. A Jay has to contend with the Crows, and they do so in a cordial manner, but a Jay will steal the fame and claim as his own, honor and right. A Crow needs no one to applaud his standing. It's manifest all around him in the real world.

Who holds council in the rights of animals? A Crow. Who is chosen to give man fits and rival his domain? A Crow. Who, while "caw, cawing", is out the other side of his beak saying "Hark, the morning dawns resplendent and frosty today. Fragrant, those flowers there. Permeate and Pervade forest, there thy care." A Crow did say that. I heard it here in my very yard last year. They say things like that and so much more. We may think we hear 'caw, caw'. We can not fully understand the vast and varied language animals speak. Someday perhaps we will. With that day, we will know the copious wisdom, not of the Jay, but the Crow.

So, I concluded my talk. A long pause followed and it finally dawned on me that I had not heard Mr. Clemens talk in some time. I had one of the greatest story tellers on my roof top and I was hogging all the discussion about the merits of a crow. I was talking when I should have been listening to him to give me advise and council. He could have offered a wealth of insight. We got up and he finally spoke..."Your story intriques me lad. I shall have to think about it some more." With that he was gone.

It was cold up there and I began to feel it again. The clouds were moving as a slow cover overhead as I began making my way back to the ladder. Starting down, I tripped and landed headfirst in a snowbank. Soft, cold snow down my neck and up my nose. Laying there in the cool night looking up I had one more glimpse of Twain. As he disappeared forever, he called out, "Don't forget, Jay's are mischievious and clever too!"

Revised: April 5, 1997
URL: http://www.oocities.org/Athens/Acropolis/1915

Hosted by

Free pages