The Tale of Reddy Woodpecker

Reddy Woodpecker Meets Mr. Flicker. The Tale of Reddy Woodpecker. Frontispiece—(Page [22])

TUCK-ME-IN TALES

(Trademark Registered)

THE TALE OF
REDDY WOODPECKER

BY
ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY

Author of
"SLEEPY-TIME TALES"
(Trademark Registered)
and
"SLUMBER-TOWN TALES"
(Trademark Registered)

ILLUSTRATED BY
HARRY L. SMITH

NEW YORK
GROSSET & DUNLAP
PUBLISHERS

Made in the United States of America

COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
GROSSET & DUNLAP

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I [Mrs. Robin's News]
II [Getting Acquainted]
III [Morning Tattoos]
IV [The High-Hole]
V [Too Much Cousin]
VI [Mr. Flicker's Plans]
VII [The Two Neighbors]
VIII [An Early Call]
IX [Mrs. Robin Worries]
X [Obeying Orders]
XI [A Very Short Fight]
XII [Jolly Robin's Helper]
XIII [The Carpenter]
XIV [Mr. Crow's Questions]
XV [The Redcaps]
XVI [A Sly Trick]
XVII [A Hunting Party]
XVIII [A Big Appetite]
XIX [Who Was Greedy?]
XX [Catching Flies]
XXI [The Odd Mr. Frog]
XXII [Dodging Danger]
XXIII [Beechnuts]
XXIV [The Winter's Store]

THE TALE OF
REDDY WOODPECKER

I

MRS. ROBIN'S NEWS

If you had been in Farmer Green's door-yard on a certain day in May you would have heard an unusual twittering and chirping and squawking.

Now, there was a reason for all this chatter. Jolly Robin's wife had seen a handsome stranger in the orchard. And she had hurried away to spread the news among her friends.

"He's a dashing person, very elegantly dressed," Mrs. Robin told everybody.

That remark did not seem to please the good lady's husband. For Jolly Robin turned up his nose—or his bill—slightly, and he said to his wife, "The question is: What are his manners like?"

Mrs. Robin admitted that the stranger's manners were not all that one might wish.

"He was somewhat noisy," she explained. "And I fear he may be quarrelsome. But his clothes certainly were beautiful."

Jasper Jay, who was something of a dandy, wanted to know exactly what the stranger wore. He said he doubted that the newcomer was as fashionable as Mrs. Robin supposed.

"I can't tell you much about his suit," Mrs. Robin went on, "except that it was new and stylish. What I noticed specially was his cap. It was a big one and it was a brilliant red."

Jasper Jay sniffed when he heard that.

"They're not wearing red caps this season," he declared. He flew off then, to find his cousin Mr. Crow and tell him the news. For he hoped that Mr. Crow would give the stranger a disagreeable greeting. Jasper Jay did not like other birds to be more gayly dressed than he.

While all the feathered folk in the neighborhood were wondering who the stranger could be old Mr. Crow came winging over from the edge of the woods.

"Where is he?" he squalled. "Let me have one look at this new arrival! I think I know who he is."

A little later Mr. Crow had his look, over in the orchard. Then he came back and alighted in the tall grass behind the farmhouse.

"He's a Red-headed Woodpecker," Mr. Crow announced with a wise tilt of his own head. "There hasn't been one of his kind in Pleasant Valley for years and years.... It's a pity," he added, "that this one has stopped here."

The old gentleman's words threw little Mrs. Chippy into a flutter.

"Is he a dangerous person?" she quavered.

"I believe so," said Mr. Crow darkly.

"Does he eat eggs?" Mrs. Chippy faltered. "And nestlings?"

For a moment or two old Mr. Crow couldn't make up his mind whether he ought to get angry or not. Eating eggs and young birds was a subject he liked to avoid. He was aware that his neighbors knew he was a rascal. But he was a quick-witted old fellow. Suddenly he saw how the presence of this stranger might help him.

"Yes!" he told Mrs. Chippy. "This Woodpecker family all eat eggs and nestlings. And if you people miss any of your treasures, later, you'll know who took them."

At that little Mr. Chippy nodded his chestnut-crowned head.

"If it isn't you," he remarked to Mr. Crow, "then it will be the stranger."

"Not at all! Not at all!" the old gentleman squawked. "You'll be safe in thinking the newcomer guilty." Then he turned his back on Mr. Chippy, as if that small, shrinking chap weren't worth noticing. And favoring Mrs. Chippy with what he thought was a pleasant smile, Mr. Crow said to her, "You mustn't let this Red-head know where your nest is. No doubt you have eggs in it already."

"Yes, I have!" she twittered proudly.

"I certainly hope Red-head won't steal them," said Mr. Crow. "It would be a shame if you lost your beautiful eggs.... Where is your nest, Mrs. Chippy?"

"Don't tell him!" peeped Mr. Chippy to his wife. "He wants to eat our eggs himself."

As for Mr. Crow, he gave a hoarse cry of rage, before he flapped himself away.

II

GETTING ACQUAINTED

"I don't believe—" said Mrs. Jolly Robin after old Mr. Crow had flown off in a rage—"I don't believe this Mr. Woodpecker can be such a bad person as Mr. Crow thinks. He certainly wears very stylish clothes and a very handsome red cap."

"Clothes—" said little Mr. Chippy severely—"clothes don't tell whether their wearer has a taste for eggs. Now, I wear a red cap. To be sure, it isn't as bright, perhaps, nor as big, as Mr. Woodpecker's. But it's a red cap, all the same. And everybody knows that I don't eat eggs. Everybody knows I'm no nest robber."

"You don't look like one!" cried a strange voice which made everybody jump. It was the newcomer, Mr. Woodpecker, himself! Unnoticed he had flown up. And now he perched on a limb nearby. "You don't look any more like a nest robber than I do," he told Mr. Chippy.

The whole company stared at him; and then stared at little Mr. Chippy. There was a vast difference between them. Mr. Chippy was a tiny, meek person, while Mr. Woodpecker was as bold as brass. Mr. Chippy was modestly dressed; and his cap, though it was reddish, was of a dull hue. But the newcomer wore a flashy suit of dark steel blue and white; and his cap was both very big and very red. Mr. Chippy was a shy body who said little; and when he did speak it was usually only to utter a faint chip, chip, chip, chip. But Mr. Woodpecker was very talkative. When he spoke you didn't have to strain your ears to hear what he said.

Mr. Woodpecker gave a quick glance all about and cried, "How-dy do!"

"Good morning, Mr. Woodpecker!" the birds greeted him.

"Don't call me 'Mister!'" he said. "My name is Reddy—Reddy Woodpecker." Then he turned to little, shrinking Mr. Chippy and his wife. "I can see that you're worried about your eggs," he remarked. "I suppose your nest is hidden not far away."

Mr. and Mrs. Chippy looked most uncomfortable. They didn't quite dare speak to such a grand person as Reddy.

"Where's your nest?" Reddy asked them bluntly.

"Chip, chip, chip, chip!" said Mr. Chippy. "Chip, chip, chip, chip!" said his wife.

"What sort of answer is that to a civil question?" Reddy Woodpecker blustered. "Here I've just made your acquaintance. And I've asked you to call me by my first name. And you won't even tell me where you live!"

Mr. and Mrs. Chippy didn't know what to say. It was lucky for them that Mr. Catbird came to their rescue.

"Don't bully these good people!" Mr. Catbird cried, as he settled himself right in front of Reddy Woodpecker. "If you had heard what old Mr. Crow said about you, just before you arrived, you'd understand why Mr. and Mrs. Chippy don't care to tell you where their nest is."

Reddy glared at Mr. Catbird.

"Old Mr. Crow? Who's he?" Reddy demanded. "I haven't made his acquaintance. I'm sure he can't know anything about me."

"Ah! Perhaps not!" Mr. Catbird answered. "But he knows what sort of family yours is. He has met others like you."

Reddy sniffed. "I never saw a Crow that wasn't a rascally blackguard," he snapped. "There never was a Crow that wasn't a nest robber."

"Chip, chip, chip, chip!" Mr. Chippy interrupted.

"What's he saying?" Reddy Woodpecker asked Mr. Catbird.

"He says he agrees with you."

"Then he has more sense than I thought," Reddy observed. "And if Mr. Crow spoke ill of me I hope Mr. Chippy has enough sense not to believe him."

"Chip, chip, chip, chip!"

"What's he saying now?" Reddy Woodpecker demanded of Mr. Catbird.

"He says he agrees with Mr. Crow," Mr. Catbird explained very pleasantly.

"Then he hasn't any sense at all!" cried Reddy.

The whole company couldn't help giggling when he said that. And Reddy Woodpecker promptly lost his temper.

"I've planned to spend the summer here," he said. "It's too late now to move on. But I can understand at last why none of my family has visited this neighborhood for many years. It's a pleasant enough place. But the neighbors aren't my sort at all."

"Chip, chip, chip, chip!" piped Mr. Chippy.

"He says he agrees with you," Mr. Catbird told Reddy Woodpecker. And then he added, "Meaow!" And he gave himself a jerk and spread his tail, all of which told Reddy Woodpecker plainly that Mr. Catbird had a very poor opinion of him.

III

MORNING TATTOOS

In the spring Reddy Woodpecker liked to drum.

He never felt that a pleasant day was rightly begun unless he played a tattoo early in the morning. So upon his arrival in Pleasant Valley he began promptly to look about for a good drumming place.

It wasn't long before he discovered a strip of tin nailed upon the roof of Farmer Green's barn.

"Ah!" cried Reddy the moment he spied this treasure. "Just what I need!" And settling himself down upon it he hammered out a long, rolling tattoo with his strong bill.

It mattered not to him that Farmer Green's family was sound asleep. He didn't care whether he disturbed anybody. He liked to hear his own drumming; and he intended to drum.

"This is the finest drumming place I've ever had!" Reddy Woodpecker cried aloud. "I don't care if the neighbors are disagreeable to me. I'm glad I came here to spend the summer."

So he made good use of that bit of tin with which Farmer Green had mended the roof of the barn. Each morning (if it wasn't raining) he flew to the barn to beat his tattoo. And he began to speak of "My tin," and "My roof"—and even of "My barn!"

Then, one morning, Reddy was a bit lazy. He was late about his morning drumming. And before he had left the orchard where he had decided to live he heard a sound that gave him a great start. From the direction of the barn came a rolling beat which filled him with dismay.

"Who's that drumming?" he exclaimed. "It can't be myself, because I'm here in the orchard." Then all at once he became terribly angry. "It's somebody else!" he muttered. "Somebody has stolen my drumming place—my piece of tin—my roof—my barn!"

He flung himself off the old, dead apple tree where he had been looking for grubs for his breakfast and flew straight towards the rolling sound which still beat upon the air.

It was just as he had feared. A stranger sat upon the strip of tin pounding away with his bill as if it were his duty to waken everybody in Pleasant Valley. He wasn't as handsomely dressed as Reddy Woodpecker. He wore a brown and gray and black suit, with a patch of white low down upon his back and a splash of red on the back of his head. From each side of his bill reached a black mustache. This mustache gave the strange drummer a brigandish air which made Reddy Woodpecker think twice before he spoke to him. But Reddy was so angry that he just had to say something.

"Hop away from there!" he cried.

The stranger stopped drumming and looked up with a smile. He said only one word. It was "Why?"

"Because," said Reddy Woodpecker, "that bit of tin belongs to me."

"Does it?" asked the other. "I thought it belonged to Farmer Green."

Reddy Woodpecker noticed that the stranger was bigger than he was. And that fact, as well as the fierce mustache, made him hesitate again. He wanted to call the stranger a name. But he didn't quite dare.

Then the stranger spoke again. He spoke very agreeably, too.

"What use do you make of this tin?" he inquired.

"I drum on it," Reddy replied.

"Oh!" said the gentleman with the mustache. "Why didn't you say so before?" And he bowed and scraped in a most polite fashion. "I resign!" he cried. In another moment he was gone.

Reddy Woodpecker hastened to beat his morning tattoo upon the tin. And while he was drumming he noticed a Barn Swallow watching him.

"Who was that chap that just left?" he asked.

"Don't you know him?" Mr. Barn Swallow exclaimed. "That's Mr. Flicker."

"Huh!" Reddy Woodpecker grunted. "I don't think much of his drumming."

"You ought to," remarked Mr. Barn Swallow.

"Why?" Reddy inquired.

"Because he's a distant cousin of yours," Mr. Barn Swallow explained. "He belongs to the Woodpecker family."

IV

THE HIGH-HOLE

Reddy Woodpecker lost no time in making friends with his cousin Mr. Flicker. Reddy knew well enough that most of the birds in the neighborhood wished he hadn't come there to live. So he thought it wise to be pleasant and polite to Mr. Flicker. There was no knowing when he might need one friend among so many enemies. He even let Mr. Flicker drum upon the strip of tin upon the roof of the barn. But secretly Reddy thought him a queer chap.

"There's one thing that's very odd about you," Reddy said to Mr. Flicker one day. "If you're a Woodpecker, why don't you peck wood? I've noticed that you spend most of your time on the ground—when you're not drumming upon my tin."

Mr. Flicker laughed.

"Oh!" he said lightly, "we Flickers have found an easier way to get a living than by drilling wood with our bills to find grubs. We eat ants," he explained. "And that's why you see me on the ground so much, because that's where the ants live." At the moment Mr. Flicker was on the ground, while Reddy clung to the trunk of a tree near him. And just to prove the truth of his statement Mr. Flicker made a quick jab into the turf with his bill. He pulled his bill out at once, giving Reddy Woodpecker a glimpse of an ant before he swallowed it.

Reddy Woodpecker stared at him in amazement. "Where's your home?" he asked Mr. Flicker. "Is your home on the ground?"

"Bless you, no!" cried Mr. Flicker. "I'm no ground bird. My wife and I have a fine hole in an old apple tree in the orchard."

Reddy Woodpecker had to approve of that, anyhow. So he nodded his red-capped head.

"You're sensible in one way, at least," he remarked. "That's the way to live, if only you build high enough, out of harm's way."

Mr. Flicker grinned at him.

"It's plain that you don't know we Flickers are sometimes called High-holes," he said, "because of the way we nest."

"Ah! So you have two names, eh?" Reddy Woodpecker exclaimed, as he speared a grub with his tongue and drew it out from under a bit of bark. "I should think you'd find that confusing. I should think you'd forget who you were, sometimes."

"Oh! It's easy when you get used to it," Mr. Flicker replied. He paused to capture another ant. And then he added, "I have more than just two names. I have one hundred and twenty-four in all."

"My goodness!" cried Reddy. He was so astonished that he missed a stab at a fine grub that was right under his nose. "My goodness! Has your wife as many names as that?"

"Yes!" said Mr. Flicker.

"And your children?"

Mr. Flicker nodded.

"Sakes alive!" Reddy exclaimed. "How do you ever feed them all?"

Mr. Flicker gave a long, rolling, curious laugh.

"We feed the children under only one name," he explained, "although I must confess it sometimes seems to me that each of them eats enough for one hundred and twenty-four youngsters."

"I know how that is," said Reddy Woodpecker. "My home is in a tree in the orchard, too. And I'm raising a family of four myself."

V

TOO MUCH COUSIN

Reddy Woodpecker wished that he hadn't been so pleasant to his cousin Mr. Flicker. It was all well enough for Mr. Flicker to drum upon Reddy's bit of tin on the roof of the barn so long as he drummed late in the morning. But when he drummed early, as he sometimes did, it usually happened that Reddy had to wait before he could begin his own morning tattoo.

And Reddy Woodpecker didn't like that at all. In fact it seemed to him that Mr. Flicker had quite forgotten his manners. For if he happened to reach the barn first he never stopped drumming until he had all but drummed his head off. At least, that was the way it seemed to Reddy Woodpecker.

At such times Reddy did everything he could think of—short of actually fighting—to make Mr. Flicker stop. He made a sound like a tree toad, ktr-rr, kttr-r-r. He tapped on the shingles with his bill. He flew right over Mr. Flicker's head. But it seemed as if Mr. Flicker simply couldn't take a hint.

"I don't like to order him to hop away," thought Reddy. "He's my cousin. Besides, he's bigger than I am; and he does look terribly fierce with that black mustache."'

Though he may have looked fierce, Mr. Flicker always acted in the most pleasant manner possible. And when he finished his drumming he never failed to ask Reddy Woodpecker how he liked it.

It was a hard question for Reddy to answer, because he didn't care in the least for Mr. Flicker's tattoos. He thought his own were far better. Sometimes Reddy pretended not to hear his cousin's question, but started drumming at once. Sometimes he said, "I believe that's an improvement over yesterday's tattoo." And at last he exclaimed one morning, "You ought to join the Woodchuck brothers!"

Mr. Flicker was a great person to ask, "Why?" He asked it now.

"Because," Reddy told him, "the Woodchuck brothers are famous whistlers. And they need somebody to drum for them while they whistle. I've often heard them chirping away by themselves over in the pasture. And as you must know, there's no music that sounds better than drumming, with a little shrill whistling to go with it—unless it's a little whistling, with a plenty of loud drumming."

Mr. Flicker's favorite word "Why" sprang to his bill again. "Why," he inquired, "do you not drum for the Woodchuck brothers yourself?"

Reddy Woodpecker shook his head.

"I want to practice more, before I join a troupe," he said.

"There!" Mr. Flicker exclaimed. "I like to hear people talk that way. That shows that you don't think you're the best drummer in Pleasant Valley."

"I don't, eh?" said Reddy.

"No, you don't!" said Mr. Flicker. And it was plain that he didn't think so, either. But before Reddy could make up his mind to quarrel with his cousin Mr. Flicker asked him another question—not "Why?" but "Where?" "Where—" said Mr. Flicker earnestly—"where can one find these Woodchuck brothers?"

"One can find them in the pasture, unless they're in the clover patch. Just now they are probably in the pasture, for it's a bit early in the season for clover."

"The pasture!" repeated Mr. Flicker. "Ah! There must be ant hills in the pasture."

"Hundreds of them!" said Reddy.

"Then I'll go to see the Woodchuck brothers at once," Mr. Flicker decided. So he flew off.

VI

MR. FLICKER'S PLANS

In a little while Mr. Flicker returned from his trip to the pasture to see the Woodchuck brothers. Hurrying into the orchard he called to Reddy Woodpecker, "They're thinking it over."

"They'll want you to drum for them," Reddy assured him. "There's no doubt that the Woodchuck brothers will accept your offer.... Why don't you move up to the pasture at once? You'd find it handy, living in the Woodchucks' door-yard."

"I can't do that," said Mr. Flicker. "You forget my family."

"Move them too!" Reddy urged him.

But Mr. Flicker shook his head. "I don't believe my wife would be willing," he replied. "Besides, there's that piece of tin on the roof of the barn. Would you advise me to move that?"

"No!" Reddy cried hastily. "Don't move the tin! In fact, Mr. Flicker, I shouldn't move at all, if I were you."

But Mr. Flicker had liked the plan of moving to the pasture to live. He had found great quantities of ants there. And to Reddy's dismay he insisted that he should move and take the strip of tin with him. That is to say, he intended to move as soon as his wife gave him permission.

It was no wonder Reddy wished he had never put such an idea into his cousin Mr. Flicker's head. He had hoped to get rid only of Mr. Flicker and his drumming. He had never dreamed that Mr. Flicker would want to take the precious bit of tin with him when he went.

Shortly afterward Mr. Flicker reported that it was just as he had thought. Mrs. Flicker wouldn't listen to moving just then. But later, after the children learned to fly, and could feed themselves, she would have no objection to the change of residence.

Reddy Woodpecker cocked an eye toward the roof of the barn.

"That tin—" he said—"you can't take it with you when you move. It belongs to Farmer Green."

"Oh!" Mr. Flicker exclaimed. "I thought it belonged to you. And I knew you wouldn't object to your cousin's borrowing it for the rest of the season—now would you?"

But Reddy Woodpecker wasn't going to answer any dangerous questions. "The tin is Farmer Green's," he declared.

It seemed as if Mr. Flicker were full of alarming thoughts.

"I wish," he said, "we'd have a cyclone that would rip that tin off the barn and carry it up to the pasture."

"Oh, my goodness!" cried Reddy Woodpecker. And he worried dreadfully all the rest of that day. There's no knowing when he would have stopped fretting had Mr. Flicker not made a certain report to him the following morning.

"The Woodchuck brothers don't want me to drum for them," he announced.

"Then you aren't going to move!" cried Reddy.

"No!" Mr. Flicker replied. "And I don't intend there shall be any cyclone, either."

So at last Reddy Woodpecker felt better.

VII

THE TWO NEIGHBORS

While Reddy Woodpecker and his cousin were getting acquainted their wives became quite friendly. Living as they did, each in an old apple tree at the lower end of the orchard, they often met. And since their doorways were almost opposite each other Mrs. Woodpecker and Mrs. Flicker didn't even have to leave their homes to enjoy a neighborly chat.

If one of them had something specially interesting to say, all she had to do was to stick her head out of the hole in the trunk of her tree and call. And if the other happened to be at home it was never more than a second before her head popped forth from her doorway. It was all very simple and most convenient.

Everything was pleasant until one day something happened. Something changed the friendly feelings between the two ladies. When Reddy Woodpecker peered out of his doorway one morning Mrs. Flicker called to him, "Good morning, my dear!"

He was so surprised he didn't know what to say.

But Mrs. Woodpecker knew what to say. It chanced that she was clinging to a limb above their home, so screened by some leaves that Mrs. Flicker couldn't see her. She quickly made known her presence. And she said so much that Mrs. Flicker soon withdrew her head. She hadn't answered Mrs. Woodpecker. Indeed she had had no opportunity; for Mrs. Woodpecker talked fast and furiously.

"It's no wonder she hides!" Mrs. Woodpecker spluttered. "I'd like to know what she means by calling my husband her 'dear!'"

Well, Reddy Woodpecker felt just as uncomfortable as Mrs. Flicker must have felt. But he didn't hide. He didn't dare to hide.

"What had you said to her?" Mrs. Woodpecker demanded.

"Honestly," Reddy replied, "I hadn't said a word. I had just stuck my head out. And the first thing I knew Mrs. Flicker called to me. You heard what she said."

"I certainly did!" was his wife's grim response. "It was a very queer way for her to speak to you."

"It was nothing—" Reddy assured her—"nothing at all. She made a mistake."

"She certainly did!" cried Mrs. Woodpecker. "She didn't know I was right here where I could hear her. She should have been more careful. That's where she made a serious blunder."

"Oh, my goodness!" said Reddy. "I didn't mean that. It wasn't that sort of mistake. It was this sort: Mrs. Flicker——"

"Don't mention her name to me again!" shrilled Mrs. Woodpecker.

"Well, how can I talk about her, then?" Reddy asked his wife.

"If you feel that you must talk about her," said Mrs. Woodpecker, "call her 'she.'"

"All right! She made this mistake: She thought she was talking to you."

Mrs. Woodpecker laughed bitterly at that.

"You'll have hard work making me believe it," she told her husband.

"Well, you ask her if it isn't the truth," Reddy urged.

"I will!" his wife promised. "Don't worry! I'll ask her.... And now," she added, "you'd better go and find some breakfast for the children. We can get along without any early tattoo this morning."

He went.

VIII

AN EARLY CALL

Mrs. Woodpecker flew to her neighbor Mrs. Flicker's tree and rapped, tap-tap-tap-tap. She didn't rap gently, either. She was not in a gentle mood. She intended to find out why Mrs. Flicker had called to Reddy Woodpecker, "Good morning, my dear!"

Mrs. Flicker promptly stuck her head out of her door.

"My husband is not at home," she said. And then she vanished.

"Well, the very idea! What a remark to make to me!" cried Mrs. Woodpecker. "As if I'd call on a gentleman!" Being angrier than ever, she rapped harder than before.

Again Mrs. Flicker peered out. Again she spoke.

"Did you wish to leave a message, Mr. Woodpecker?" she inquired.

"I'm not Mr. Woodpecker! I'm Mrs. Woodpecker!" shrieked the caller.

"Oh! Oh! Oh! My! My! My!" exclaimed Mrs. Flicker, who was greatly astonished. "I beg your pardon! Excuse me! It's my mistake."

"It certainly isn't mine," said Mrs. Reddy Woodpecker. "It seems to me you're making a good many mistakes this morning, madam."

Mrs. Flicker looked very unhappy. She wasn't used to being called 'madam.' She could see that Mrs. Woodpecker was furious. She wanted to be friends with Mrs. Woodpecker.

"You and Mr. Woodpecker look very much alike," Mrs. Flicker said to her angry caller. "When one of you peeps out of your house it's hard to tell who's who. Just now when I came to my doorway I could see only your head. And I thought it was your husband. When I spoke to your husband a few minutes ago I thought it was you."

Mrs. Woodpecker stared at her neighbor for a few moments. Somehow she thought Mrs. Flicker must be telling the truth.

"It's your red caps, I think," Mrs. Flicker went on. "They make you look like twins."

"Dear me!" said Mrs. Woodpecker. "I hadn't thought of that. What can we do?" Her anger had suddenly left her.

"My husband and I have things nicely arranged," Mrs. Flicker told her caller.

"Now, you never have mistaken him for me, have you?"

"No!"

"Nor me for him?"

"No!"

"Do you know the reason?" Mrs. Flicker asked.

"No! No! I can't say I do," replied Mrs. Woodpecker eagerly.

"Well," said Mrs. Flicker, "my husband wears a black mustache.... And of course I don't," she added.

"That's it!" cried Mrs. Woodpecker. "I hadn't realized it. But it's so. And I must tell my husband to wear a mustache. It's the only safe way to avoid trouble. Then people can tell us apart."

Then Mrs. Woodpecker hurried away to speak to her husband. She was surprised that he didn't take kindly to her suggestion.

"I don't want to wear a mustache," he objected.

"But you must!" she insisted.

"Why don't you wear one?" he inquired. "It would do just as well."

"Don't be silly!" she snapped. "Ladies never wear mustaches."

"Yes, they do," he replied.

"No, they don't!" she disputed.

Well, he saw at once that it was useless to argue with her.

"Come with me a moment, my dear!" Reddy begged her.

She thought he was going somewhere to get a mustache. So of course she hurried after him.

Reddy Woodpecker stopped beside Farmer Green's barn.

"There!" he said, as he waved a wing towards a great poster that was pasted upon the side of the barn. "Do you see that lady? She has a mustache—and a beard, too!"

It was just as he said. Mrs. Woodpecker couldn't help admitting that, to herself. And though she didn't speak to Reddy the rest of that day, he was satisfied. For she didn't mention mustaches to him again.

"It was lucky for me," he thought, "that the circus came to these parts this summer."

IX

MRS. ROBIN WORRIES

Though the Flickers welcomed Reddy Woodpecker when he came to live in Pleasant Valley there was hardly another bird family that wasn't sorry to see him settle there. Among all the feathered folk on Farmer Green's place the Robin family was perhaps the sorriest. They had a nest of eggs in the orchard, in a crotch of an old apple tree. And it was on just such trees that Reddy Woodpecker spent a great deal of his time, hunting for grubs.

Jolly Robin himself might not have paid much heed to Reddy. But Mrs. Robin was a great worrier. Often she worried over nothing at all. And now that she had had a few talks with timid little Mrs. Chippy about the newcomer, Reddy Woodpecker, Mrs. Robin firmly believed that he had come to the farm expressly to rob her of her four greenish-blue eggs. After each talk with Mrs. Chippy Mrs. Robin came home all a-flutter.

"We'll have to watch sharp!" she said to Jolly Robin again and again. "This Woodpecker person is a rascal. It's a pity we built here in the orchard. We'd have been safer on top of one of the posts under Farmer Green's porch."

"I mentioned that very place," Jolly reminded her. "But you were afraid of Miss Kitty Cat."

Not a day passed without some such words between them. Jolly did what he could to calm his wife's fears. He stayed near home all the time, when often he would have liked to fly across the meadow to chat with friends who lived on the edge of the woods.

Reddy Woodpecker never started to rap on a tree but Mrs. Robin set up a loud twitter, begging Jolly to hurry back to the nest.

He was wonderfully patient with her. Yet he couldn't help hoping, secretly, for the day when his family should be grown up and able to look out for themselves.

But if Mrs. Robin was anxious about her eggs her worry was nothing compared with what it became when the nestlings broke through their shells.

"This is the finest family in the whole valley," she confided to her husband. "I know that terrible Woodpecker person will steal these children if he can."

If the youngsters didn't peep for food their mother feared they were ill. If they did peep she feared Reddy Woodpecker would hear them. "He's such a dangerous person!" she would exclaim. "I wonder if he ever eats anything except eggs and nestlings."

"Yes, indeed!" Jolly assured her again and again. "He eats grubs, which he finds on the trees. And he eats insects, which he catches in the air."

"Thank goodness!" Mrs. Robin murmured. But her relief was short-lived. For she happened to meet little Mrs. Chippy one day and learned another bit of distressing news about Reddy Woodpecker. "He's a fruit eater!" Mrs. Robin told Jolly. "And you know we've been depending on the raspberries for our children."

A few days later she came home in a dreadful state of mind.

"I went to take a look at the raspberry patch," she explained to her good husband. "I knew the berries would soon be ripe. In fact I've had my eye on one that was almost ready to be picked. And what do you think? Eight before my own eyes that ruffianly Reddy Woodpecker picked it and ate it himself!"

"Don't worry about that!" said Jolly Robin.

But Mrs. Robin insisted on worrying; nothing he said could stop her.

"Reddy Woodpecker is taking the food out of our children's mouths!" she wailed. "You'll have to drive him away from the raspberry patch! You'll have to fight him!"

Now, Jolly Robin hardly thought that he was a match for Reddy Woodpecker. So when his wife gave him those orders he began to worry, himself.

X

OBEYING ORDERS

Jolly Robin's worrying wife wouldn't give him a moment's peace.

"You'd better get along over to the raspberry patch," she kept telling him. "If you don't hurry that terrible Reddy Woodpecker will eat every berry. He'll snatch each one as it ripens and we shall not have any to feed our children."

Now, Jolly Robin didn't care to have any trouble with Reddy Woodpecker. But he soon saw that if he avoided Reddy he would only have trouble with Mrs. Robin. So at last he said, "Very well! I'll attend to him, my love." And off he flew, looking much braver than he felt. You'd have thought, to see him, that he longed to find Reddy Woodpecker. Really he hoped that he wouldn't find Reddy anywhere.

Much to Jolly Robin's dismay he met Reddy Woodpecker among the raspberry bushes. Jolly jumped when he saw that dashing newcomer. But it was too late to dodge out of sight. Reddy Woodpecker saw him. So Jolly Robin made up his mind to put on a bold front. Sitting on a fence post that overlooked the raspberry patch he stared hard at Reddy Woodpecker. He thought perhaps he could frighten him away.

He might as well have stared at the barn door. To his great distress Reddy Woodpecker picked a berry and flew to a near-by post, where he sat and ate the fruit with relish. When he had finished the dainty he pretended to notice Jolly Robin for the first time and he bowed and scraped in the politest fashion.

Still Jolly Robin did not utter a word. Nor did he return any of Reddy's bows. But he began to feel himself swelling; he began to feel his feathers ruffle up. And he knew then that he must speak soon or burst. For there was no doubt that he was growing angry. So presently he cried:

"Was that raspberry ripe?"

"Yes," replied Reddy Woodpecker, "and very juicy."

Now, Jolly Robin hadn't meant to ask any such question as that. He had meant to make some cutting remark. But he was so in the habit of being pleasant to everybody that it was very hard for him to be disagreeable.

"A-ahem!" he said. "Pardon me, sir! Did—did you know that my wife and I have been expecting to pick these raspberries for our children?"

But he might as well have said nothing at all. For Reddy Woodpecker only laughed and exclaimed, "You're a joker, aren't you?"

"No, I'm not," Jolly replied.

"Yes, you are," said Reddy Woodpecker. "You can't fool me. I know well enough that you don't intend to bring your children up on berries. I've seen you pulling angleworms for them too many times." Then Reddy dropped off his post and clung to a bush while he picked another berry that seemed redder than the rest.

"Well," Jolly thought, "I've talked to him anyhow. At least I can tell my wife that." So he left Reddy to enjoy the fruit and sailed away to his home.

"You're back very quickly," Mrs. Robin remarked when she saw him. "Didn't you find that Woodpecker person?"

"Oh, yes! I found him," Jolly explained. "I found him and I talked with him, too."

Mrs. Robin cast a sharp glance at her husband.

"Where is he now?" she inquired.

"He's eating raspberries in the berry patch," Jolly told her. "When I talked with him I said——"

"You said!" Mrs. Robin interrupted. "You said! The question is, what did you do? If you didn't fight him you must go back and do your duty."

There was nothing he could do except obey her. So, feeling very desperate, Jolly Robin hurried back to the place where the raspberry bushes grew by the fence. He gave three loud chirps, to encourage himself. And then he darted down and sailed very close to Reddy Woodpecker's head. He didn't pause an instant to see what effect this action had on Reddy Woodpecker, but flew away as quickly as he could. "I guess I scared him that time," he muttered.

Meanwhile Reddy Woodpecker stared after him and watched him as he disappeared among the apple tree tops.

"Well, what do you think of that?" he said to himself with a grin.

XI

A VERY SHORT FIGHT

Jolly Robin told his wife how he swooped down over Reddy Woodpecker's head. And he assured her that he had no doubt that Mr. Woodpecker would not be seen among the raspberry bushes again.

Jolly had felt quite pleased with himself. His threatened attack on Reddy had seemed to him to be very daring. So he was disappointed when his wife did not praise him.

"You ought to have stuck that rascal with your bill," Mrs. Robin complained. "If he's the sort of person I think he is he'll pay no heed to your warning."

As usual, Mrs. Robin proved to be right. That very day she herself beheld Reddy Woodpecker eating more raspberries. He had stolen every ripe berry. Though Mrs. Robin had hoped to find four (one for each of her nestlings) she didn't pick even one. They were all too hard and sour.

"It's a pity," she said to Jolly. "Everybody knows now-a-days that children need fruit. The day is past when you can bring them up on nothing but angleworms. You'll have to go back there to the raspberry patch and fight Reddy. You can't escape a fight any longer."

Well, what could he do? What could Jolly Robin do but obey his wife? He asked himself that question. And he could find only one answer. It was "Nothing!" There was nothing he could think of that would satisfy Mrs. Robin except a real battle. So he went forth.

Yes! Jolly Robin went forth very bravely to find Reddy Woodpecker. He meant to surprise him. But it was Jolly who received the surprise.

Reddy Woodpecker attacked first! The moment he spied Jolly Robin Reddy hurled himself at him. He skimmed so near to Jolly's head that that astonished little fellow ducked and hurried away. Yes! Jolly Robin retreated. It wasn't that Reddy Woodpecker was bigger than he was. To tell the truth, Reddy wasn't quite so big. But he liked to fight. And Jolly Robin loved peace.

Jolly hid in the midst of a thick hedge that grew beyond the fence. "Well," he muttered, "that fight was soon over. There's no use of telling Mrs. Robin about it. She would only worry." He there a long time. He didn't want to go home. He didn't know what to do. So he thought and thought; until at last a happy idea popped into his head. "I'll get help!" he exclaimed. "I'll get my friends from the other side of the meadow to come and help me fight Reddy."

Mrs. Robin was worrying terribly when Jolly reached home.

"You've been gone a long time," she complained. "Did you chase that Woodpecker person out of the valley?"

"No!" said Jolly. "But I expect to to-morrow."

"I thought I told you to fight him to-day," said his wife somewhat tartly.

"Yes! Yes!" he replied hastily. "We had a set-to—Mr. Woodpecker and I. But the real fight will take place to-morrow."

"I'm glad to hear you talk that way at last," she told him. "It's high time something was done."

XII

JOLLY ROBIN'S HELPER

The next morning Jolly Robin told his wife that she would have to do all the work of gathering the children's breakfast. "You know, my love," he explained, "I have important business to attend to to-day." And before she had time to object he left her.

Over near the garden fence he met three plump Robins who had flown across the meadow to help him fight Reddy Woodpecker. And soon the four had dropped down into the raspberry patch.

Reddy Woodpecker had not arrived. So, while they were waiting Jolly Robin's friends helped themselves to berries. Under the hot sun the fruit had ripened fast. Finding it both sweet and juicy they ate of it freely. And Jolly Robin could think of no reason why he should not do likewise.

By the time Reddy Woodpecker came, all the Robins from over the meadow were feeling so well fed and good-natured that they were in anything but a fighting mood.

"Let that Woodpecker enjoy this fruit if he likes it," they said to Jolly in an undertone. "There's more than enough for everybody. And now," they told him, "we must go home, because we have to help our wives feed our children."