Part 13 (1/2)

THE LOST LEG

Near the hole where Maya had set herself up for the su beetles Fridolin, the father, was an earnest, industriousup a large faetic sons to fill hi little tunnel in the bark of the pine-tree and all were getting on and were comfortably settled

”My wife,” Fridolin said to Maya, after they had known each other sos so that none of my sons interferes with the others They are not even acquainted; each goes his oay”

Maya knew that hus were none too fond of Fridolin and his people, though she herself liked him and liked his opinions and had found no reason to avoid hi before the sun arose and the woods were still asleep, she would hear his fine tapping and boring It sounded like a delicate trickling, or as if the tree were breathing in its sleep Later she would see the thin brown dust that he had emptied out of his corridor

Once he ca and ask if she had slept well

”Not flying to-day?” he inquired

”No, it's too windy”

It indy The wind rushed and roared and flung the branches into a reat gust the sky would brighten, and in the pale light the trees seemed balder The pine in which Maya and Fridolin lived shrieked with the voices of the wind as in a fury of anger and exciteht,” he told Maya, ”all night But what can you do? You've got to do _soether satisfied with this pine; I should have tackled a fir-tree” He wiped his brow and smiled in self-pity

”How are your children?” asked Maya pleasantly

”Thank you,” said Fridolin, ”thank you for your interest

But”--he hesitated--”but I don't supervise the way I used to

Still, I have reason to believe they are all doing well”

As he sat there, a little brown -sheaths and a breastplate that looked like a head too large for its body, Maya thought he was alerous beetle who could do ihty trees of the forest, and if his tribe attacked a tree in nureen needles were doomed, the tree would turn sear and die It was utterly without defenses against the little marauders who destroyed the bark and the sap-wood And the sap-wood is necessary to the life of a tree because it carries the sap up to the very tips of the branches There were stories of hohole forests had fallen victi-beetles Maya looked at Fridolin reflectively; she ed into solereat power these little creatures possessed and of how ihed and said in a worried tone:

”Ah, life would be beautiful if there were no woodpeckers”

Maya nodded

”Yes, indeed, you're right The woodpecker gobbles up every insect he sees”

”If it were only that,” observed Fridolin, ”if it were only that he got the careless people who fool around on the outside, on the bark, I'd say, 'Very well, a woodpeckerthat the bird should follow us right into our corridors into the remotest corners of our ho, isn't he?”

Fridolin looked at Maya with an air of grave i his head two or three ti she didn't know

”Too big? What difference does his size make? No, ue”

Mayaeyes