"Stupid thing!" said Drummer the Woodpecker to himself. "I don't
know what I am trying to warn him for, anyway. The Green Meadows
and the Green Forest would be better off without him, a lot
better off! Nobody likes him. He's a dreadful bully and is all
the time trying to catch or scare to death those who are smaller
than he. Still, he is so handsome!" Drummer cocked his head on
one side and looked over at Reddy Fox.

Reddy was laughing to see how hard Bowser the Hound was working
to untangle Reddy's mixed-up trail.

"Yes, Sir, he certainly is handsome," said Drummer once more.

Then he looked down at the foot of the old tree on which he was
sitting, and what he saw caused Drummer to make up his mind. "I
surely would miss seeing that beautiful red coat of his! I surely
would!" he muttered. "If he doesn't hear and heed now, it won't
be my fault!" Then Drummer the Woodpecker began such a furious
rat-a-tat-tat-tat on the trunk of the old tree that it rang
through the Green Forest and out across the Green Meadows almost
to the Purple Hills.

Down at the foot of the tree a freckled face on which there was a
black scowl looked up. It was the face of Farmer Brown's boy.

"What ails that pesky woodpecker?" he muttered. "If he doesn't
keep still, he'll scare that fox!"

He shook a fist at Drummer, but Drummer didn't appear to notice.