SOMETHING PRETTY IN A GLASS CASE 275 



wind outside was madly beating against the house 

 and trying to force its way through the window, and 

 was making a hundred strange noises — httle sharp 

 shrill broken sounds that mixed with and filled the 

 pauses between the wailing and shrieking gusts, and 

 somehow the woodpecker was catching these small 

 sounds in his beak and turning them into words. 



" Hullo ! " he said. " Who are you and what 

 are you doing there ? " 



" I'm a squirrel," responded the other. " I've said 

 so over and over again, but you will go on worrying 

 me ! My only wish is that I could bring my tail just 

 a Httle more to the right so as to hide my head and 

 paws altogether from you." 



" But you can't. Hullo ! squirrel, what are you 

 doing there ? You forgot to tell me that." 



" I'm eating a nut, confound you ! You know it ; 

 I've told you ten thousand times. I can't ever get it 

 up quite close enough to bite it and I haven't tasted 

 one for seventeen years. One forgets what a thing 

 tastes hke." 



" I know. I've been fasting just as long myself. 

 Never an ant's egg ! Hullo ! Have you got it up ? 

 How does it taste ? " 



" Taste ! You fool ! If I could only move I 

 wouldn't mind the nut ; I'd go for you like a shot, 



