ions!

They did other droll things just as their fathers had done before them.
They used to screw their heads around owl fashion, a very convenient
thing for wild birds who cling to tree trunks and yet need to know what
is going on behind their backs. Once, on hearing a sudden noise, one of
them ducked low and drew his head in between his shoulders in such a
comical way we all laughed at him.

I often went up to the ranch to visit them. We would take them out under
a big spreading oak beside the house, where the little girl's mother sat
with her sewing, and then watch the birds as we talked. When we put them
on the tree trunk, at first they did not know what to do, but soon they
scrambled up on the branches so fast their guardian had to climb up
after them for fear they would get away. Poor little Jacob climbed as if
afraid of falling off, taking short hops up the side of the tree,
bending his stiff tail at a sharp angle under him to brace himself
against the bark. Bairdi, his strong brother, was less nervous, and
found courage to catch ants on the bark. Jacob did a pretty thing one
day. When put on the oak, he crept into a crack of the bark and lay
there fluffed up against its sides with the sun slanting across,
lighting up his pretty red cap. He looked so contented and happy it was
a pleasure to watch him. Another time he started to climb up on top of
my head and, I dare say, was surprised and disappointed when what he had
taken for a tree trunk came to an untimely end. When we put the brothers
on the grass, one of them went over the ground with long hops, while the
other hid under the rocking-chair. One bird seemed possessed to sit on
the white apron worn by the little girl's mother, flying over to it from
my lap, again and again.

The woodpeckers had brought from the nest a liking for dark, protected
places. Bairdi twice clambered up my hair and hung close under the brim
of my black straw hat. Another time he climbed up my dress to my black
tie and, fastening his claws in the silk, clung with his head in the
dark folds as if he liked the shade. I covered the pretty pet with my
hand and he seemed to enjoy it. When I first looked down at him his eyes
were open, though he kept very still; but soon his head dropped on my
breast and he went fast asleep, and would have had a good nap if Jacob
had not called and waked him up.

Jacob improved so much after the first few days--and some doses of red
pepper--that we had to