40 WESTERN SERIES OF READERS. 



In fruit and nut time they "live high," and 

 this is when the farmer wishes there were n't any 

 woodpeckers, and he sets his boys to "shooing" 

 the birds away. 



If the boys surprise a woodpecker in the or- 

 chard at a late apple tree, he will plunge his beak 

 into a sample and fly off to cover with it, as much 

 as to say, " I '11 have one out of your hundreds, 

 any way! Follow me and get it! " 



Woodpecker knows a corn-field from a marsh 

 meadow or an orange orchard; and he loves to 

 strip down the corn-husks. He listened outside, 

 clinging to the tall stalk, and he heard the fat 

 worm gnawing its own breakfast inside. In 

 taking the worm, he incidentally tastes of the 

 milky, sweet juice of the corn, and smacks his 

 mouth for more. The farmer thinks he comes 

 for the corn, when in truth he is after the worms, 

 that are there before him. But woodpecker and 

 Mr. Farmer have a misunderstanding about the 

 matter. Woodpecker is waiting, with many other 

 birds, for the boys to tell the farmers they are 

 more good than harm. 



