t. Then he
understood. He had almost put his hand on A-tos-sa the Big Blacksnake.

A-tos-sa had a half-grown bird by the wing and was trying to swallow
it. The young bird was strong enough to flutter a good deal and Mother
Chee-wink had flapped her wings in the snake's eyes and pecked his head,
so that he had not been able to get a good hold.

Little Luke struck at once. The stick hit the snake and he let go of the
bird and slid down to the ground. Little Luke hit him again, this time
squarely on the head. Then with a stone he made sure that A-tos-sa would
never try to eat young birds again.

After he had finished with the snake, he picked up the young bird which
had fallen to the ground. It seemed more scared than hurt, so he put it
carefully into the nest, where there were two other young birds. Then he
went on up toward the woods.

Mrs. Chee-wink flew back to the fir bush. She looked first at the dead
snake and then at her nest. Then she said, "Chee-wink, chee-wink,
to-whee, chee-wink, to-whee," two or three times very softly and settled
down quietly on her nest. Of course that meant, "Thank you, little boy,
thank you!"

Up above the fir bush in the pasture stood an old apple tree, all alone
by itself. On a dead branch was Ya-rup the Flicker. He was using the
hard shell of the dead branch for a drum. "Rat, a tat, tat," he went
faster and faster, till the beats ran into one long resounding roll.
Then he stopped and screamed, "Kee-yer, kee-yer!" Perhaps he meant,
"Well done! good boy! good boy!"

You see he had seen little Luke's battle with the blacksnake and was
drumming and screaming for joy. Little Luke stopped under the old apple
tree and listened to Ya-rup's drumming and screaming for a while. Then
he went on up to the edge of the big woods.

There he found an old trail which he followed a long way till it forked.
Right in the fork of the trail, he saw a young bird. Its feathers were
not half grown and of course it could not fly. Little Luke knew that
it must have fallen out of the nest by accident. So he ran after the
frightened little bird and picked it up very carefully. Just then
O-loo-la the Wood Thrush flew down into a bush by the side of the trail
and began to plead, "Pit'y! pit'y! don't hurt him! Let him go, little
boy; please let him go!" he seemed to say.

Little Luke looked around for the nest. Soon he saw it in a tangle of
vines that ran over a dogwood bush.

Very carefully he picked his wa