Going Out of Doors 53 



wait to be called, but just hopped over 

 there as fast as I could, and watched. 

 Sometimes he saw the worm or sing or 

 egg sooner than I did, but generally I 

 had seen it and pecked it up before he 

 knew it was there. It was great fun 

 every day to go out and have a feast 

 like that. I believe he enjoyed it as 

 much as I did, and of course it was real 

 good to me, for little birds do like slugs 

 and worms, provided they are not too 

 big for them to swallow. When Fessor 

 would turn up a great, big, long worm 

 and I would try to swallow it, he would 

 laugh at me so funnily. But it was no 

 fun to me, I can assure you, to try to 

 swallow a worm longer than myself. 

 And so I had to go to work with my 

 bill and cut him up into smaller pieces, 

 and that sometimes made me very tired. 



