280 BIRDS AND MAN 



" Just think, old neighbour, to have it end at last ! 

 Burnt up to ashes and smoke — feathers and hair, 

 glass eyes, cottonwool stuffing and all ! " 



" Never again to hear that everlasting Hullo ! To 

 hate you and hate you and tell you a thousand 

 thousand times, only to begin it all over again ! " 



"To fly up away in the smoke, out out out in 

 the wind and rain ! " 



"The rain! the rain ! " 



" The rain from the south-west that made me 

 laugh my loudest ! Raining all day, wetting my 

 green feathers, wetting every green leaf in the woods 

 beyond Lostwithiel. Raining until all the stony 

 gullies were filled to overflowing, and the water ran 

 and gurgled and roared until the whole wood was 

 filled with the sound." 



" No, no, woodpecker, I can't, I can't believe it ! " 



" It's true ! It's true ! Don't you see it coming, 

 squirrel ? Look at him ! Look at him ! Now, now ! 

 At last ! At last ! At last ! " 



Suddenly their sharp agitated voices fell to a 

 broken whispering and died into silence. For the 

 wind had lulled again. Looking closely at them I 

 thought I could see a new expression in their immov- 

 able glass eyes. It frightened me, I began to be 

 frightened at myself ; for it now seemed to me that 



