The Woodpecker 



He's the sassiest critter that ever I see! 

 An' he sets there a-peekin' an' bobbin' at me, 

 While he's carvin a notch in the wind-shaky crotch 

 O' that moss-covered hickory tree. 

 Dinged if ever I see such a tormentin' bird ! 

 When I woke up this mornin', the first thing I heard 

 Was his "rubby-dub-dub" on an ol' holler stub — 

 'Fore the other fowls twittered 'r stirred. 



See im set there a-peckin' that worm-eaten limb, 

 An' a-winkin' at me as I'm talkin o' him ; 

 While his hard bullet head shinin' glossy an' red 

 Drives a bill like a thorn, black an' slim. 

 Seems in teasin' a feller he takes a delight ; 

 An' he'd rather be killed in a one-sided fight, 

 Than to give up the grub he has found in that stub — 

 'R to show the white feather, in flight. 



He's the beatenest bird — an' he don't care a straw ! 

 W'y, he takes what he wants, without license 'r law, 

 An' he chatters with fun at the crack of a gun — 

 While he's fillin' his famishin' craw. 

 I'll be hanged if I don't kind o' fancy 'im though — 

 He's so blamed independent an' keerless, you know ; 

 An' I'd feel sort o' bad — an' consider'ble sad. 

 If he'd mind by complainin' an' go. 



James Ball Nay lor. 



896 



