The mist gradually lifted to reveal a leaden white sky. There was too much cloud for the sun to provide any warmth, and Algy was feeling very cold for the time of year. So he tucked himself in among the sheltering leaves of a purple elder, and dozed through the day, soothed by the delicate scent of the pretty pink flowers.

As Algy rocked himself to sleep, the lines of a little poem by Dorothy Parker kept running through his head. He was amused to think that in reality the thrush was not in the elder bush at all, but hopping about busily on the ground below, hunting for food for its baby. It was Algy himself who was a-flickering in the bush:

          The bird that feeds from off my palm
          Is sleek, affectionate, and calm,
          But double, to me, is worth the thrush
          A-flickering in the elder-bush.

[Algy is thinking of the little rhyme Ornithology For Beginners by the well-known American writer Dorothy Parker.]

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