TAKING A NAP. 127 



I did not ; I sat motionless for half an hour 

 and watched him. When somewhat rested he 

 dodged around the other side of the trunk, and 

 peeped at me through a fork in the branches. 

 Then he scrambled upon a small branch, where 

 he perched crosswise. But he had trouble to 

 keep his balance in that position, so he climbed 

 about till he found a limb fully two inches in 

 diameter, on which he could rest in the favorite 

 flicker attitude — lengthwise. Then with his 

 head outward to the world at large, and his 

 tail turned indifferently toward me, — whom he 

 doubtless regarded as a permanent and lifeless 

 feature of the landscape, — he settled himself, 

 crouched flat against the bark, for a comfortable 

 nap. 



All this time I had been conscious of low 

 Golden-wing talk about me ; the familiar " wick- 

 up ! wick-up ! " almost in a whisper, a softened 

 " pe-auk ! " from the ravine, and the more dis- 

 tant " laugh," so called. The infant on the 

 tree heard too. He moved his head, listened 

 and looked, but whether or not they were words 

 of caution and advice from the wiser ones of 

 his race, he refused to be frightened and did not 

 move till I rose to leave him, when, greatly 

 startled, he took flight across the ravine. 



