During this feast I
had paid no attention to the birds, but when my hunger was over I began
again to feel annoyed at their trivial persecutions, and so continued to
gather the fallen nuts to throw at them. It amused and piqued me at the
same time to see how wide of the mark my missiles went. I could hardly
have hit a haystack at a distance of ten yards. After half an hour's
vigorous practice my right hand began to recover its lost cunning, and I
was at last greatly delighted when of my nuts went hissing like a bullet
through the leaves, not further than a yard from the wren, or whatever
the little beggar was, I had aimed at. Their Impertinences did not like
this at all; they began to find out that I was a rather dangerous person
to meddle with: their ranks were broken, they became demoralized and
scattered, in all directions, and I was finally left master of the
field.
"Dolt that I am," I suddenly exclaimed, "to be fooling away my time when
the nearest railway station or hotel is perhaps twenty miles away."
I hurried on, but when I got to the end of the grove, on the green sward
near some laurel and juniper bushes, I came on an excavation apparently
just made, the loose earth which had been dug out looking quite fresh
and moist.
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