The Crow

Once upon a time the crow was the most accomplished of all songbirds.

And he knew it.

And the world knew it.

Every day, and long into the evening, even after the sun had set and as the stars began to twinkle, you could hear him match their glitter note for note.

Families, at their evening meal, would stop eating, and make no noise with spoons and forks and plates—would even stop chewing—when he set out again in song, whether from afar or near, perhaps he would sit in their garden apple tree. An...