00:30illustrated by Mike Spohr.
00:35The crows were happy,
00:36and they were happy because, as usual,
00:39they were in Farmer Ham's cornfield eating corn.
00:43All day long, they would sit in the cornfield,
00:46singing, dancing, and stuffing themselves
00:49with Farmer Ham's corn.
00:54Day after day, Farmer Ham would run out of his farmhouse,
00:59waving his arms and shouting as loud as he could
01:02to try to get rid of the crows.
01:04But the crows would just fly up into the air,
01:07shouting, silly old Farmer Ham.
01:10Eventually, Farmer Ham would get tired
01:13and go back into his farmhouse.
01:15So the crows would land back in the cornfield
01:17and start to sing, dance, and eat corn again.
01:23Then one day, Farmer Ham came out of his farmhouse,
01:27but he didn't run and shout at all.
01:30He walked up the path from the farmhouse,
01:33past the gate to the cornfield,
01:35past his old tractor, and straight past the crows,
01:38until he came to the pond at the edge of the cornfield.
01:45That's funny, said one crow.
01:48That's not funny, said another.
01:51This is funny, and he made a face.
01:54All the crows started laughing and shouting,
01:58silly old Farmer Ham.
02:02At the pond, Farmer Ham sat down,
02:05took out a fishing rod, and began to fish.
02:11There are no fish in that pond, said one of the crows.
02:15He's not wearing a coat, said another.
02:18Maybe he wants to catch a cold instead of fish.
02:22All the crows snorted with laughter,
02:24shouting, silly old Farmer Ham.
02:30Farmer Ham just carried on fishing,
02:33and soon he pulled out a dirty old boot from the pond.
02:40Hey, Farmer Ham, said one crow.
02:43You can't make a fish pie from an old boot.
02:47He could always eat the soul, said another,
02:50and all the crows laughed.
02:52As Farmer Ham walked away, carrying the dirty old boot,
02:56all the crows snickered, shouting, silly old Farmer Ham.
03:04The next day, Farmer Ham went back to the pond
03:07and began to fish again.
03:09All the crows watched him until, this time,
03:12he pulled out a bent and twisted top hat.
03:18He's as mad as a hatter, said one crow.
03:23He must be soft in the head, said another.
03:25All the crows laughed as Farmer Ham walked away
03:28with the bent and twisted top hat, shouting after him,
03:32silly old Farmer Ham.
03:37On the third day, Farmer Ham went to the pond again.
03:41He started to fish.
03:43This time, he pulled out a long, slime-covered scarf.
03:48Maybe he thinks it's an eel, said one crow.
03:51He'll soon regret it if he does, said another.
03:55All the crows laughed, shouting, silly old Farmer Ham,
03:59as he made his way back to the farmhouse,
04:02carrying the long, slimy scarf.
04:08On the fourth day, Farmer Ham went fishing in the pond again,
04:12and this time, pulled out a bent and twisted top hat.
04:17A tatty jacket and a ripped pair of trousers.
04:24You'd think he'd have given up by now, said one crow.
04:28Yeah, he's just not suited to it at all, said another.
04:33All the crows laughed.
04:34In fact, they were laughing so hard,
04:37they were rolling on the floor with tears in their eyes,
04:40and it took all their effort to keep on shouting,
04:43silly old Farmer Ham.
04:48While the crows lay on the floor,
04:51unable to do anything but laugh,
04:53Farmer Ham collected together all the things
04:56he had fished out from the pond,
04:58went into his barn, and closed the door.
05:04When the crows stopped laughing,
05:06they looked around quite puzzled.
05:09Hey, where has Farmer Ham gone, they said.
05:13He's not by the pond, said one.
05:15He's not in the field, said another.
05:18Maybe he's not, said a third, but something is.
05:26Look.
05:33The frightened crows disappeared into the distance,
05:36screaming and shouting that they were never going
05:39near that cornfield again.
05:41Then Farmer Ham looked at the terrifying figure
05:44standing in his cornfield and smiled.
05:46Clever old Farmer Ham.
05:52I hope you enjoyed that story.
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05:59all the other stories that are already uploaded.
06:02Thank you so much for watching.
