Saint Guido 



that has caused you all this unhappiness a thousand 

 years, and you will not have a spirit like us, and feel 

 like us. Till you have a spirit like us, and feel like 

 us, you will never, never be happy. Lie still, dear; 

 the shadow of the oak is broad and will not move 

 from you for a long time yet." 



" But perhaps Paul will come up to my house, and 

 Percy and Morna." 



" Look up in the oak very quietly, don't move, just 

 open your eyes and look," said the Wheat, who was 

 very cunning. Guido looked and saw a lovely little 

 bird climbing up a branch. It was chequered, black 

 and white, like a very small magpie, only without 

 such a long tail, and it had a spot of red about its 

 neck. It was a pied woodpecker, not the large green 

 woodpecker, but another kind. Guido saw it go 

 round the branch, and then some way up, and round 

 again till it came to a place that pleased it, and then 

 the woodpecker struck the bark with its bill, tap- 

 tap. The sound was quite loud, ever so much more 

 noise than such a tiny bill seemed able to make. 

 Tap-tap! If Guido had not been still so that the 

 bird had come close he would never have found it 

 among the leaves. Tap tap! After it had picked 

 out all the insects there, the woodpecker flew away 

 over the ashpoles of the copse. 



" I should just like to stroke him/' said Guido. 

 " If I climbed up into the oak perhaps he would 

 come again, and I could catch him/' 



" No/' said the Wheat, " he only comes once a day/' 



" Then tell me stories," said Guido, imperiously. 



" I will if I can," said the Wheat. " Once upon 

 a time, when the oak the lightning struck was still 

 living, and when the wheat was green in this very 

 field, a man came staggering out of the wood, and 



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