164
PARTISAN REVIEW
and his lips parted in his earnestness. His posture and his skill made
the doctor think of a praying mantis, one of those miraculously ugly
creatures which he had seen on the road under a tulip tree and
had taken at first for withering seed pods. N<;>w, a foot away, the
hands parted. He was ready for the capture. Dr. Pakheiser found him–
self holding his breath and could not tell whether he wanted the bird
to foil the boy or wished to see it taken. Directly under the certain
hands, the prey was still unaware. Now they descended and gently
took the bird. Freddie stroked its head tenderly with his forefinger
and when the captive made a movement to escape, he drew it to his
chest smiling rapturously. And the doctor might have warmed to–
wards him, seeing the innocent happiness in his face, had he not
bawled out, "Hey, Mom! Got me another one. Boy, oh, boy, am I
good!"
4.
Its head high, its tail feathers trailing the ground, the great cock–
pheasant moved with dignity out of the shadow of the apple tree
into the light where all the glory of its habiliments shone like a sun–
struck diamond. Dr. Pakheiser who had been roused early by an
urgent telephone call, paused in his dressing to watch the wonderful
bird. He had never seen one before save in pictures which he had not
altogether believed. The japanning of its plumage had been master–
ful: emerald blazed forth beside gold and gold beside scarlet. There
was something about it so rich and unusual that he did not think of
it as a bird at all but as a costly ornament for the patch of bright
grass where now it stopped, surveying the terrain as if this were its
own dominion. But the kingly creature was no wiser than its plebeian
brothers, and it began to walk rapidly towards one of Freddie's
traps. The doctor immediately flung wide his window, unfastened
the screen and leaned out, shouting and waving his arms to scare
away the foolish bird. He disturbed the sleeping wrens in the eave and
they flew wildly against the screen, then sailed off to the apple tree.
But the pheasant was deaf to warnings, walked complacently towards
his prison. In a frenzy, Dr. Pakheiser reached back to the bedside
table and picked up his metal ashtray from Milan. He hurled it at
the pheasant. It fell close to the quick feet and instantly the bird
turned, running, this time, back over the grass through the shadow
of the apple tree and disappeared in the tall weeds that grew about
the abandoned boats. Freddie ran out of the cottage. The doctor
fastened his screen and stepped back out of sight behind the drapery
