Show farmer browns boy allows mr blacksnake to escape THORNTON BURGESS D r RUMMER THE woodpecker 1 and mrs drummer actually flew to meet farmer farmer browns boy when they saw him coming through the old orchard with a stick in one hand and a stone in the other in s spite pite of an all that tommy tit the chickadee and chatterer the red bed squirrel had told them about the kindness w which farmer browns boy had learned they still distrusted him but now with mr blacksnake actually looking in at the door of 0 their home and making ready to swallow their five helpless babies they forgot their distrust they flew almost to him then back toward the i iv q t I 1 so farmer browns boy brought the stick down close beside air blacksnake instead of on him tree all the time crying in the most pitiful way of course farmer browns ry cy C y t understand what they said but he knew right away what they meant they meant tor for him to hurry to please hurry and help them so he did hurry and when he saw mr blacksnake he hurried still fast er mr blacksnake saw him coming he drew back from the doorway of drummers home and hissed angrily he pretended to be very fierce and by so doing tried to frighten farmer browns boy as he had so often frightened others but farmer browns boy knows all about mr blacksnake and how he really is a great coward and only pretends to be brave HI therel there he yelled and threw the e stone he held in his hand it hit mr blacksnake but it struck very close to him right away he forgot all about those young Wood woodpeckers he had planned to eat tor for his dinner he have room for or but one thought and that was to get away as quickly as possible he saw that farmer browns boy afraid of him and he was afraid very much afraid of farm er browns boy he turned and be gan to glide swiftly down the tree farmer browns boy rushed for w ward ard brandishing a long stick kill himl him kill hiell him shrieked chatterer kill himl kill himl shrieked S sammy ammy J jay ay kill himl him kill hiell him shrieked drummer and mrs drummer and all the other feathered folk of t the h old orchard farmer browns boy fully intend ed to do it As mr blacksnake slipped from the tree farmer browns boy raised the long stick meaning to bring it down on mr blacksnakes Black snakes head and kill him but he you see at just that very minute he changed his mind it had come over him an all of a sudden that mr blacksnake had just as much right to live as he had he was one of old mother natures big family just as much is as was drummer the woodpecker in trying to get a dinner ot of helpless young woodpeckers he was no worse than a lot of other little people and not so bad as hunters who with die dreadful adful guns go out to kill birds and little animals not because they really need them to eat but tor for what they can call sport he remembered too a lot of things he had found out about mr blacksnake and some ot of his relatives that they really do a great deal of good more good than harm 1 I dont want to kill him thought he what I 1 want to do is to scare him so that hell never want to come back to drummers house again and will think a long time before he will visit any other nests so farmer browns boy brought the stick down close beside mr blacksnake instead of on him and kept doing it as he chased him through the old orchard halt half down to the green meadows all the time yelling at him and altogether giving him the worst scare he ever had bad known a whole lot better than killing him said farmer browns brown s boy as he stopped to get his breath and though chatterer the red squirrel and drummer the Woud woodpecker pecker think so and said as much it was as you know 0 T W burgess service |