The Least Sandpiper 
made with many flashing strokes of that factotum tool, the bill; wings 
are stretched, and their filmy draperies are rearranged to a fairy’s taste. 
If you have been discreet, you are either forgotten by 
now, or else accepted as a part of life’s gracious 
horizon. If it is mealtime, you shall see 
a thousand rapier- 
thrusts into 
the sand for 
“fleas” or tiny crustaceans, which are swallowed at a 
gulp. Or you shall see bright eyes, which spy tid-bits 
and unguessable delicacies in the shallow' w^ater of a 
brackish pool or on its oozy bottom; and the Peeps will 
wade about belly-deep, thrusting their heads under water as fearlessly 
as ducks. Or if it is the siesta, most privileged of hours, you shall see little 
beaks thrust under wing, and slumber at a rod’s remove as sweet and 
Taken near Santa Barbara 
Photo by the Author 
Taken near Santa Barbara 
A TRUSTFUL COMPANY 
Photo by the Author 
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