"You'd better stick to catching flies," Reddy advised him. "That's all you're good for."
"Perhaps you're right," Mr. Frog replied. He seemed quite meek and mournful. But all at once he smiled. "Anyhow," he remarked, "it's lucky that the flies stick to me—now isn't it?"
XXII
DODGING DANGER
Soon after Reddy Woodpecker settled in Farmer Green's orchard he noticed that a certain person often followed him. The stranger wore gray fur and always flourished a long, bushy tail behind him. He could climb trees as well as Reddy Woodpecker himself. And though he couldn't fly, he was very skillful at leaping from one tree top into another.
Whenever Reddy Woodpecker happened to turn around and spy this lurking stranger the fellow acted as if he hadn't seen Reddy Woodpecker. He would pretend to whisk a bit of bark off the tip of his tail, or arrange his mustache. But the moment Reddy turned his back upon him the stranger would creep a little nearer.
At last this sly person made a quick dash at Reddy Woodpecker one day. He discovered, then, that Reddy was both wide-awake and spry. For Reddy slipped off the tree trunk where he had been clinging and easily escaped the greedy clutches of the stranger.
It's no wonder that Reddy was angry. No one would care to have his breakfast interrupted in such a fashion.
"I knew that sneak meant to catch me if he could," Reddy muttered to himself as he went on with his breakfast.
A few moments later his cousin Mr. Flicker settled upon an ant hill below him.