122 A DROLL FATTER OF FEET. 



predecessors, had his own peculiar notion, 

 which was to go behind everything. He 

 squeezed himself between a trunk, or a heavy 

 piece of furniture, and the wall, where it did 

 not seem possible that one of his size could 

 pass, and showed so great an inclination to go 

 through a hole in the open-work fire-board that 

 I hastily covered it up. After a while he tested 

 the matting and carefully investigated, by light 

 taps of his bill, each separate nail. His step 

 was heavy, and he did not hop, but ran around 

 with a droll little patter of the feet, like a 

 child's footsteps. 



Having exhausted the novelty of the floor, he 

 turned his eyes upward, perhaps noticing that 

 the other birds were higher in the room, where 

 they had taken refuge when he made his sudden 

 and somewhat alarming appearance!* among 

 them. He did not try to fly, but he was not 

 without resources ; he could jump, and no one 

 could outdo him in climbing, or in holding on. 

 After a moment's apparent consideration of the 

 means at his command, he ran to the corner 

 and mounted a trunk by springing up halfway, 

 holding on a moment in some mysterious man- 

 ner, and then by a second jump landing on top. 

 From that point it was easy to reach the bird's 

 table, and there was a ladder placed for the ben- 

 efit of another that could not fly. This ladder 



