Little Luke stood and watched poor Ah-mo for a moment.  Then he took a twig from the bush and set him free.  Ah-mo rubbed himself all over with his legs and tried his wings carefully to see if they were sound.  Then he flew up from the ground and buzzed three times round little Luke’s head.

The little boy was not afraid.  He knew that bees never sting anyone who does not hurt or frighten them, and besides, he thought the buzzing had a friendly sound to it.  It seemed to him as if Ah-mo was trying to say, “Thank you, little boy, thank you,” as well as he could.

When Ah-mo had flown away, little Luke looked around to see what old Mrs. Ik-to was doing, but he could not find her.

Leaving the old spider to mend her web as well as she could, little Luke got over the fence into the pasture.  As he was going along he heard Mrs. Chee-wink making a great outcry.  She was flying about a little bushy fir tree not bigger than a currant bush.  “Chee-wink, to-whee; chee-wink, to-whee!” she called.  Little Luke thought she was saying, “Help!  Help!  Come here, come here!” And so she was.

[Illustration]

He went up toward the fir bush.  As he walked along, he picked up a stout stick that was lying on the ground.  When he came to the bush, Mrs. Chee-wink flew off to a tall sapling near by and watched him without saying a word.

At first he could not see anything to disturb anybody.  But he knew that Mrs. Chee-wink would never have made all that fuss for nothing.  So he took hold of the fir bush and pulled the branches apart.  Then he understood.  He had almost put his hand on A-tos-sa the Big Blacksnake.

A-tos-sa had a half-grown bird by the wing and was trying to swallow it.  The young bird was strong enough to flutter a good deal and Mother Chee-wink had flapped her wings in the snake’s eyes and pecked his head, so that he had not been able to get a good hold.

Little Luke struck at once.  The stick hit the snake and he let go of the bird and slid down to the ground.  Little Luke hit him again, this time squarely on the head.  Then with a stone he made sure that A-tos-sa would never try to eat young birds again.

After he had finished with the snake, he picked up the young bird which had fallen to the ground.  It seemed more scared than hurt, so he put it carefully into the nest, where there were two other young birds.  Then he went on up toward the woods.

Mrs. Chee-wink flew back to the fir bush.  She looked first at the dead snake and then at her nest.  Then she said, “Chee-wink, chee-wink, to-whee, chee-wink, to-whee,” two or three times very softly and settled down quietly on her nest.  Of course that meant, “Thank you, little boy, thank you!”

Up above the fir bush in the pasture stood an old apple tree, all alone by itself.  On a dead branch was Ya-rup the Flicker.  He was using the hard shell of the dead branch for a drum.  “Rat, a tat, tat,” he went faster and faster, till the beats ran into one long resounding roll.  Then he stopped and screamed, “Kee-yer, kee-yer!” Perhaps he meant, “Well done! good boy! good boy!”