El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-09-12
Terrible Timothy
BY F. st. Mars.

~ 1MOTHY was titmouse, which is
tomtit which has nothing te
do with mouse really, but is q
bird In all. counting his tail, he was
exactly six inches long, but he might
have been six yards by the airs he
gave himself. He was dressed in black
and white and greeny yellow, and had
a large black cravat and white cheeks
IAN awful cheek besides.
Very pretty he looked as he per-
formed acrobatic performances on q
piece of suet hung from bough close
to the dining room window. Mostly he
hung from it upside down. and pecked
with beak like needle and about
as sharp.
In five minutes he had got tired of
suet and vanished on whirring, tiny
wings to the hedge, where he came
upon a wren singing fit to burst his
tiny throat. Timothy came to an
Choir on a hawthorn hedge-it was all
"a mass of foamy blossoms, and
scented the air with a cocoanut-paste
smell that made your mouth water.
He watched the wren keenly for as
long as it took a skylark in the field
chest, and fall again. Then he hoped
down into the bush where the wren
sang. ana he pretended to be bud
hunting" "Bud-hunting" consists In
working along each twig to Its end.
examining each bud from every point
of the compass, unearthing and swal-
lowing any tiny insect you may find
there, or pulling the bud to pieces If
you don't find one, flying on TO the
next twig.
So Timothy 'bud-hunted, and the
wren, completely lost in song-lands
quite failed to notice that he was
gradually drawing nearer. Not that
1t would have made any difference If
he had. No one suspected mere tit
of evil designs.
Then o,,iTa s,,ddaDlv Tirnothv shot
down upon the wren as star falls.
1t was all done so quickly that one
had no time to shout "Pqllce. There
was Timothy one moment bud-hunt-
ing like a respectable bird, and the
next he was on the wren's back, ham
mering like fiend at the back of
the wrens skull with that beak like
q needle. A wren is not very big
only three and half inches-and Its
skull is not warranted proof against
needles or any other murderous wea-
pons of like nature. That wren's
skull was not, anyway.
1t cracked, split, and its owner died
suddenly, with one last piercing little
Shrek, and fell fluttering headlong
through the twigs to the ground. Il
was just about the coolest piece of
tiny murder you ever saw. Timothy
shot out his wings as the wren fell
from under him, and SKINNED to a
twig. For moment he remained there
alert, motionIess, ready to fly. He was
waiting to see if the baby riot had
attracted attention, for he had many
foes, had Timothy. But apparently
all was quiet. Save for the rather hur-
amazed and Mortified sparrow, no one
seemed to have seen anything. Then
he flew down to the wren, and
perched on his fallen victim.
What he was going to do was hor-
ror, what he did do was another thing.
q n
and big gray body shot up out of
and precipitated itself upon
him. 1t was cat 1t had been watch
ing, concealed in the long grass that
grew at the hedgefoot all the time.
But tomtits know pretty well what
they are up to, as rule. They don't
often appease the hunger Of providing
puss. This one might have been sit
ting on q spring, ready set instead of
a deceased wren He shot straight up
in the air like some tiny black and
white, and yellow rocket, and the cats
paw-with the rending claws fully ex-
tended-shot past only half an inch
below him, which might have been
half a mile, so far as the cat was
concerned
Then Timothy went-went like
tiny streak-zigzaggin in and out
among the branches of the hawthorne
thorn and all other thorns, and so to
the open, where he shot across the
field headlong. taking no notice of
the shrill whistling warning of a
black bird-for he had powerful
fright-and all but ran into a great.
hawk that was quartering the field in
search of-ah, tomtit:
Round came the hawk, his wings
whistling like swords. and fell to chas-
ing Timothy. l give you my word Tim
othy had quite a busy two minutes
He twisted and he twirled and turn-
bled and tore and turned In every di-
rection, the hawk following every
move. and all at the speed of a rae
ing motor.
At last Timothy was done The
hawk had cut him off from cover and
headed him back into the open and
cover was his only chance of escape
However. he was pumped" I think