66 



THE FLICKER^S MISTAKE. 



"My dear," said Mrs. Flicker, one 

 bright day, as Mr. Flicker came flying 

 home in high feather, "we have made a 

 mistake — a horrible mistake." 



Now, Mr. Flicker was a very polite 

 bird, but he was so used to his wife's lit- 

 tle peccadilloes that, though sometimes 

 he listened patiently to her tale of woe, 

 at other times he just tossed his head, ab- 

 solutely without fear of what man might 

 do to him. On this particular day the 

 warblers were whistling and flashing in 

 and out of willow trees across the stream, 

 the wild grape and strawberry and the 

 sweet clover made the air fragrant, the 

 sun shone out gaily from a cloudless sky, 

 far and wide on the earth lay greens upon 

 greens, and overhead stretched heaven's 

 blue — a June day — why should Mr. 

 Flicker fear? With Mrs. Flicker it was 

 different ; she had laid the eggs, she had 

 patiently kept them warm ; she was now 

 watching her little baby Flickers jealous- 

 ly; what wonder that she grew morbid 

 and fearful, and exaggerated every small 

 annoyance ! Mr. Flicker saw now that 

 she was trembling with excitement, as 

 she said again, "We have made a horri- 

 ble mistake." 



"What about?" asked he. 



"Do you know," she said, solemnly, 

 "what kind of a tree this is in which we 

 have put our nest ?" 



^'A very good tree, indeed," said Mr. 

 Flicker, bristling, for he had selected the 

 tree; "a remarkably fine tree, with this 

 hollow limb in the midst of so much 

 foliage." 



"But, my dear, it is a cherry tree." 



"So much the better," said the gay Mr. 

 Flicker; "most birds like cherry trees." 



"Yes, and boys like cherry trees !" 



"Well, and what of that?" 



It will plainly be seen that Mr. Flicker 

 was no logician, but then, he could fly 

 far, far away toward the heavenly blue, 

 while logicians — the very wisest of them 

 — "on their feet must go plodding and 

 walking." 



"What of that!" mocked Mrs. Flicker, 

 nervously. "Well, there have been boys 



in this tree this very morning, picking 

 cherries, and I am worn out with flutter- 

 ing and fussing and calling, to attract 

 their attention from the nest." 



Mr. Flicker thought he knew boys, 

 and while he might be considered a fair 

 and generous-minded bird in most things, 

 it is a lamentable fact that he never could 

 quite understand why Nature in her in- 

 finite wisdom had thought it necessary 

 to produce anything so incongruous as 

 a boy. But, as has been said, Mr. Flick- 

 er's reasoning powers were limited. He 

 was sober now — boys always sobered 

 him. But after all, he had the spirit and 

 digestion of a bird, and even the fussy 

 Mrs. Flicker fussed only in a bird-like 

 manner. So they talked it over and 

 hoped for the best, especially as the babies 

 showed signs of the greatest precocity 

 and bade fair to fly away in a few days 

 and be safe from harm. 



The next day as Mr. Flicker was re- 

 turning from his favorite ant-hill, he was 

 startled by the frightened screams of his 

 wife, and for some time after he reached 

 the nest she could do nothing but scream 

 and cry and hop distractedly from branch 

 to branch. Mr. Flicker followed her 

 about and tried to comfort her, though 

 he felt that this was no imaginary griev- 

 ance. 



"What is it, my love; what is it?" he 

 begged sofily. 



"Go look in the nest," said she. 



He flew to the nest, and then his cries 

 and shrieks rose above hers, and they 

 hopped from branch to branch like de- 

 mented bird-folk. Mr. Flicker, when 

 quite himself, was gay and trustful and 

 debonair, but he was, besides all this, a 

 proud and natural parent, and when he 

 found that one of his precious babies was 

 missing, his grief, though loud, was sin- 

 cere. Mrs. Flicker told him how a dread- 

 ful, hideous boy, with frightful sprawling 

 legs and arms had climbed the tree to 

 pick cherries — how he had found the 

 nest in spite of all that she could do — how 

 he had pushed his long arm down into the 

 hollow limb and taken out and examined 



