ILLUSTRATED STORY · FOUR READING LEVELS

The Flower-Pecker and Father Lime-stick

A tiny bird makes a very large promise

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Old Father Lime-stick spread sticky birdlime on a twig where small birds liked to perch. Then he waited beneath the flowering tree.

A flower-pecker, hardly bigger than his thumb, darted from blossom to blossom. It did not notice the waiting twig.

The bird’s feet caught in the birdlime. Its wings fluttered, but it could not leave the twig. Father Lime-stick reached toward it.

He planned to make a meal of his catch. Before he could take the bird, it called out to him.

“Flesh and feathers together, I am hardly bigger than your thumb,” the flower-pecker told him. “Would you really eat me?”

Father Lime-stick did not release it. He wanted a good reason to give up his catch.