108 IN THE MIDDLE COUNTRY. 



abiding-place, with a retinue of human servants 

 to minister to his comfort. Yet he was modest 

 and unassuming, and appeared really to enjoy 

 his life of hard work ; varying his struggles with 

 a kernel of hard corn on the ground, where his 

 color shone out like a flower against the green, 

 with a rest on a spruce-tree, where 



" Like a living jewel he sits and sings ; " 



and when he had finished his frugal meal, de- 

 parting, if nothing hurried him, with a graceful, 

 loitering flight, in which each wing-beat seemed 

 to carry him but a few inches forward, and 

 leave his body poised an infinitesimal second 

 for another beat. With much noise of flutter- 

 ing wings he would start for some point, but 

 appear not to care much whether he got there. 

 He was never in haste unless there was some- 

 thing to hurry him, in which he differed greatly 

 from some of the fidgety, restless personages I 

 have known among the feathered folk. 



The woodpecker's way of making himself dis- 

 agreeable to this distinguished guest, was to 

 keep watch from his tree (an elm overlooking 

 the supply of corn) till he came to eat, and then 

 fly down, aiming for exactly the spot occupied 

 by the bird on the ground. No one, however 

 brave, could help "getting out from under," 

 when he saw this tricolored whirlwind descend- 

 ing upon him. The cardinal always jumped 



