“Yes,” answered Joanna, “he could get along by stepping upon the stones and hummocks of grass; and he tried to carry me, at first; but he soon found that it would be a great deal of work, and he said that I had better go back to my father, and get into the boat, and stay with him.
“I said, ‘Well;’ and he carried me back as far as to hard ground; and then he told me to go back by the path, until I came to the pine-tree; and then he said I should only have to follow the shore of the pond, a short distance, when I should come in sight of father’s boat.”
“Yes, but how could you get into the boat,” said Lucy, “without getting wet, when it was so far from the shore?”
“O, I could call to my father, and he would come to the shore and take me in,” said Joanna.
“Well,” said Lucy, “tell on.”
“I walked along the path, without any trouble, until I came to the great pine-tree, where I saw a woodpecker.”
“A woodpecker?” said Lucy.
“Yes; that is, a kind of a bird which pecks the bark and wood of old trees, to get bugs and worms out of it, to eat.”
“I should not think that bugs and worms would be good to eat,” said Lucy.
“They are good for woodpeckers,” said Joanna. “This woodpecker was standing upon the side of the great pine-tree, clinging to the bark. He has sharp claws, and can cling to the bark upon the side of a tree. I looked at him a minute, and then went on.