ORIGIN OF THE WOODPECKER 



IN the days when our Lord walked upon the earth with 

 the good Saint Peter, they came to a hut where an old 

 wife sat baking. Tired from the long walk and from 

 fasting, they begged of old Gertrude a bannock to stay their 

 hunger. 



The tiny piece of dough which she decided should be 

 their cake, though rolled to thinness, grew so large on the 

 griddle that she refused to part with it. Still a tinier bit she 

 took, but it, too, grew as the first had done — too large to be 

 given as alms. The third and last time a piece so small it 

 could scarcely be seen was taken, but the bannock was again 

 too large — and again she refused to part with it. 



As the wayfarers departed in hunger and thirst from 

 her door, she, through her selfishness, began to grow small 

 in punishment for her deed, so small that a human habita- 

 tion was no longer suitable for her. Up through the chiiTi- 

 ney she flew, as a woodpecker, blackening her back on the 

 sooty walls. The white apron she wore and the scarlet mutch 

 on her head remained just as they were. 



As a further punishment, she was compelled to seek her 

 food in most difficult places. If she could not find it in the 

 trees between bark and bole, she must dig for it in the hard, 

 dry wood. And she was allowed no drink save the raindrops. 



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