Part 13 (2/2)

Fridolin told her about the woodpecker's tongue: that it was long and thin, and round as a worue out ten ti his arm ”You think: 'no he has reached the lioes on stretching and stretching it He pokes it deep into all the cracks and crevices of the bark, on the chance that he'll find soeways--actually, into our corridors and chas stick to it, and that's the way he pulls us out of our homes”

”I am not a coward,” said Maya, ”I don't think I am, but what you say ht,” said Fridolin, a little envious, ”you with your sting are safe A person'll think twice before he'll let you sting his tongue Anybody'll tell you that But how about us bark-beetles? How do you think we feel? A cousin of ht We had just had a little quarrel on account of my wife I re us a visit and hadn't yet got used to our ways or our arrange and boring--one of the s because as a rule we hear him beforehand and have time to run to shelter before he reaches us

”Suddenly I heard !' Then all I heard was a short desperate scuffle, followed by complete silence, and in a fewat the house next door My poor cousin! Her na,” said Maya, in a whisper

”You oughtn't to have told it so quickly My goodness, the things that do happen!” And the little bee thought of her own adventures in the past and the accidents that h from Fridolin interrupted her reflections She looked up in surprise

”See who's co up the tree Here's the fellow for you! I tell you, he's a--but you'll see”

Maya followed the direction of his gaze and saw a re up the trunk She wouldn't have believed such a creature was possible if she had not seen it with her own eyes

”Hadn't we better hide?” she asked, alar the better of astonishment

”Absurd,” replied the bark-beetle, ”just sit still and be polite to the gentleman He is very learned, really, very scholarly, and what is more, kind and modest and, likenow!”

”Probably thinking,” observed Maya, who couldn't get over her astonishainst the wind,” said Fridolin, and laughed

”I hope his legs don't get entangled”

”Are those long threads really his legs?” asked Maya, opening her eyes wide ”I've never seen the like”

Meanwhile the newcoot a better view of hi in the air, his rotund little body hung so high on hison all sides like acautiously, feeling his way; the little brown sphere of his body rose and sank, rose and sank His legs were so very long and thin that one alone would certainly not have been enough to support his body He needed all at once, unquestionably As they were jointed in the h in the air above hiether

”Well!” she cried ”Did you ever? Would you have dreas as fine as a hair, could be so nimble and useful--that one could really use them--and they'd knohat to do? Fridolin, I think it's wonderful, simply wonderful”

”Ah, bah,” said the bark-beetle ”Don't take things so seriously Just laugh when you see sohing Often we laugh at so and later find out it was just because we haven't understood”

By this ti down at Maya fros

”Good-ht, don't you think, or--no? You are of a different opinion?” He clung to the tree as hard as he could

Fridolin turned to hide his laughing, but little Maya replied politely that she quite agreed with hi Then she introduced herself The stranger squinted down at her through his legs

”Maya, of the nation of bees,” he repeated ”Delighted, really

I have heard a good deal about bees-- I eneral fas, and my name is Hannibal”

The word spider has an evil sound in the ears of all sht, especially as she was reony in Thekla's web Hannibal seemed to take no notice, so Maya decided, ”Well if need be I'll fly away, and he can whistle for s and his web is so very hard-- If you will per branch there ainst the wind”