"After that, every time a fat grub was brought to me, I wondered if I should ever be able to find them when I began to shift for myself.
"At last my wings were strong enough and my parents called me out of the nest. I very soon found that the fat grubs lived beneath the bark of my own oak-tree. All I had to do was to strike my bill into the bark and bear off the prize."
"Were you sorry to leave your safe high nest?" asked Phyllis.
"Indeed it was not so safe," said the young woodpecker. "On the day that I left the nest a great black snake crept in. He swallowed my little brothers and sisters.
"My parents were wild with grief. They said that was the thing they always dreaded, that such things often happened in woodpeckers' nests."
"How sad!" said Phyllis. "I should never have thought of snakes!"
"They are our greatest danger," was the reply. "Squirrels sometimes come in and steal the nuts and corn we have stored away, but the snake is the most to be feared."
"So you store away food?" Phyllis asked. "Do you stay here in the winter, then?"
"Oh, yes, we often stay all winter. Have you not seen us flying about among the trees in the winter-time?"
By this time the bird sat on the window-sill.