he ground and kept very
quiet until the bird had gone. When she looked around for Bobbie
he had disappeared. So she too made off; for the rain had
stopped and the day was clear and warm.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER V

THE ACROBAT

Oh, what a day!

The dew had fallen early in the morning, and when the sun rose
and cast its slanting beams across the forest of grass, there
was such a sparkling and glistening and gleaming that you didn't
know what to say or do for sheer ecstasy, it was so beautiful,
so beautiful!

The moment Maya awoke, glad sounds greeted her from all round.
Some came out of the trees, from the throats of the birds, the
dreaded creatures who could yet produce such exquisite song;
other happy calls came out of the air, from flying insects, or
out of the grass and the bushes, from bugs and flies, big ones
and little ones.

Maya had made it very comfortable for herself in a hole in a
tree. It was safe and dry, and stayed warm the greater part
of the night because the sun shone on the entrance all day
long. Once, early in the morning, she had heard a woodpecker
rat-a-tat-tatting on the bark of the trunk, and had lost no time
getting away. The drumming of a woodpecker is as terrifying to a
little insect in the bark of a tree as the breaking open of our
shutters by a burglar would be to us. But at night she was safe
in her lofty nook. At night no creatures came prying.

She had sealed up part of the entrance with wax, leaving just
space enough to slip in and out; and in a cranny in the back of
the hole, where it was dark and cool, she had stored a little
honey against rainy days.

This morning she swung herself out into the sunshine with a cry
of delight, all anticipation as to what the fresh, lovely day
might bring. She sailed straight through the golden air, looking
like a brisk dot driven by the wind.

"I am going to meet a human being to-day," she cried. "I feel
sure I am. On days like this human beings must certainly be out
in the open air enjoying nature."

Never had she met so many insects. There was a coming and going
and all sorts of doings; the air was alive with a humming and a
laughing and glad little cries. You had to join in, you just
_had_ to join in.

After a while Maya let herself down into a forest of grass,
where all sorts of plants and flowers were growing. The highest
were the white tufts of yarrow and butterfly-weed--the flaming
milkweed t