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How did following the crow pay off for Sam in My Side of the Mountain?

Sam Gribley tells this story in the fifth chapter of the book, titled “This Is About the Old, Old Tree.” It takes place in the early days of his time living on his own in the Catskill Mountains. Sam sees a crow quietly fly into a grove of trees. He had been used to hearing the noisy crows in Central Park when he lived in New York City, so this silent crow is unusual to him. At first he thinks he’s going to try to catch the bird to eat it. But instead, he sees a nearby nest made of big sticks. He climbs the tree and finds that the nest holds crow eggs. He decides to eat them for lunch instead of the bird itself, in addition to a wild-grown salad he put together. He’s beginning to learn to live off the resources the landscape offers.

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