towards the Old Orchard. Just as he entered it he heard a merry
voice just over his head: "Dee, dee, dee, dee!" Reddy stopped and
looked up. There was Tommy Tit the Chickadee clinging tightly to a
big piece of fresh suet tied fast to a branch of a tree, and Tommy
was stuffing himself. Reddy sat down right underneath that suet and
looked up longingly. The sight of it made his mouth water so that
it was almost more than he could stand. He jumped once. He jumped
twice. He jumped three times. But all his jumping was in vain.
That suet was beyond his reach. There was no possible way of
reaching it save by flying or climbing. Reddy's tongue hung out of
his mouth with longing.

"I wish I could climb," said Reddy.

But he couldn't climb, and all the wishing in the world wouldn't
enable him to, as he very well knew. So after a little he started on.
As he drew near the far corner of the Old Orchard, he saw Bob White
and Mrs. Bob and all the young Bobs picking up grain which Farmer
Brown's boy had scattered for them just in front of the shelter he
had built for them. Reddy crouched down and very slowly, an inch at
a time, he crept forward, his eyes shining with eagerness. Just as
he was almost within springing distance, Bob White gave a signal,
and away flew the Bob Whites to the safety of a hemlock-tree on the
edge of the Green Forest.

Tears of rage and disappointment welled up in Reddy's eyes. "I wish I
could fly," he muttered, as he watched the brown birds disappear in
the big hemlock-tree.

This was quite as foolish a wish as the other, so Reddy trotted on and