The Road to Dumbiedykes 



ness a pitched battle between a husky 

 and decidedly belligerent redheaded 

 woodpecker and poor little Hansel. 

 From the cottage window opposite I 

 watched the fight. Just what object 

 Mr. Woodpecker had in trying to 

 serve a writ of ejectment upon the 

 flying squirrel, I am sure I cannot tell. 

 He did not own the place, and to my 

 certain knowledge had never even 

 asserted a claim to it. No redhead had 

 nested there in all the years that I had 

 possessed the property. I can only 

 attribute his antipathy to the squirrel 

 to the fact that probably some ances- 

 tral redhead had at no slight cost of 

 time and labor made the original 

 excavation and this loyal descendant 

 was moved by some inherited instinct 

 to protect its desecration in his eyes 

 by a member of the ancient and not 

 always respected family of rodents. 

 Be that as it may, he undertook to 

 storm the works, and much to my per- 

 sonal satisfaction was at length obliged 

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