The Magic Speech Flower | Page 4

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 way through the bushes toward the nest.
O-loo-la seemed to guess what he meant to do and hopped from bush to
bush without saying a word.
When the little boy went to put the young bird back into the nest, he
saw why he had fallen out. There were three young birds in it, and they
filled it so full that there was scarcely room for another. Little Luke
saw that the bird he held was smaller than the others. So he took one of
them out and put his bird down into the middle of the nest. Then he put
the bigger one back. When this one snuggled down into the nest, it was
quite full.
When little Luke went back into the trail, O-loo-la flew to a branch
over his head and began to sing very happily. The little boy thought
that he, too, was trying to say, "Thank you, little boy, thank you."
Little Luke took the left-hand trail and followed it till he came to a
beautiful spring which gushed from under a tall rock. He lay down
upon his stomach and took a long drink of the cool, sweet water.
Just beside the spring stood a big beech tree. Near the ground two large
roots spread out at a broad angle. Little Luke sat down between the
roots and leaned his head against the tree. It was a very comfortable
seat. So he sat there and dreamed with his eyes wide open. Just what he
was dreaming about he did not know. He only knew that he felt very
happy and very quiet.
Mee-ko the Red Squirrel ran out upon a branch just over his head and
peeked and peered at him with his bright, inquisitive eyes. As little
Luke sat very still, Mee-ko cocked his long tail up over his shoulders
and sat and watched him.
Little Luke felt so very comfortable and quiet that he closed his eyes
for a moment. At least it seemed only a moment to him. All at once he
heard a loud hum. He opened his eyes and there was Ah-mo the Honey
Bee just before his face. When Ah-mo saw that little Luke was

watching him, he flew down toward the spring and lit upon a beautiful
flower.
Little Luke was surprised; he had not seen that flower before. It was a
very beautiful flower. He leaned over and looked at it. Its petals were
blue as the sky, except near the heart, where they were pink as a baby's
fingers; and its heart was as yellow as gold.
Little Luke reached out his hand to pick the strange flower. As soon as
Mee-ko saw what he was doing, he fairly screamed. To little Luke it
seemed as if he said, "Stop, stop, let it be. Leave it alone. Go away."
Little Luke was used to Mee-ko's scolding. He had heard it many times
before, but never before had he thought there was any sense in it. It
seemed very queer to him that he could understand the speech of a
squirrel.