Exciting Adventures of Mister Robert Robin | Page 9

Both of them were scared almost out of their wits. (Page
37) (Exciting Adventures of Mr. Robert Robin)]
Widow Blunt took the owl up the stepladder with her, and tied it fast in
the cherry tree, then she went back into her house and looked out
through the kitchen window.
She had not waited long before Robert Robin came to get another
cherry. He perched on a limb and was picking out a nice red ripe one to
take home to Elizabeth when he saw something shine. It was the
stuffed owl's glass eye.
Robert Robin saw the big fierce owl so close to him that he was so
frightened he dropped the cherry and screamed, "Help! Help!" and

almost fell out of the tree, and just then Mrs. Robin came and almost
sat right beside the big owl, and she screamed, "Help! Help!" and
almost fell out of the tree, and both of them were scared almost out of
their wits, and they flew over to the harvest apple tree and Robert
Robin said, "Tut! Tut! Tut!--Tut! Tut! Tut!" and every time he said,
"Tut!" he jerked his tail.
Widow Blunt sat in her splint-bottomed chair by her kitchen window
and laughed and laughed, and laughed. "That poor robin thought he
was a goner!" she said to herself. "That old owl is good for something,
after all!"
Widow Blunt's full-blooded Plymouth Rock Rooster came around the
house with four hens. He was going to show the hens where the
cherries were falling on the ground. One of the hens saw the big owl
sitting in the cherry tree.
"See that terrible bird in the tree!" she said. Mister Rooster looked up
and saw Mister Sparrow sitting in the English currant bush.
"I could eat four birds like that one!" said the rooster.
"You are very brave!" said the hen, "but something tells me that I do
not care for cherries to-day!" and the hen started running for the barn.
Just then Mister Rooster saw the big owl.
"Ca-daa-cut! Ca-daa-cut!" he screamed. "Run for your lives!" and the
big rooster was one of the first to get under the barn.
Widow Blunt rocked back and forth in her splint-bottomed chair and
laughed, and laughed, and laughed. "It is better than a vaudeville!" she
said.
Mister Samson Crow came flying over, and he saw the big owl sitting
in Widow Blunt's early cherry tree.
Samson Crow was very much surprised to see an owl sitting in a cherry

tree in the daytime, and he said to himself: "My eyes are fairly good,
and they tell me that a whole owl is sitting in that tree!" Then Samson
Crow flew down to where Robert Robin was saying, "Tut! Tut! Tut!" in
the harvest apple tree.
"I am very glad that you came, Mister Crow!" said Robert Robin.
"Please drive that ugly owl out of that cherry tree so that I may get
some more cherries for my baby robins!"
"That is what I am going to do!" said Samson Crow. "But what puzzles
me is why any owl would be sitting in a cherry tree right near a house,
in broad daylight! Why is he there, and what does he want?"
"I have no doubt but that he is after my cherries!" said Robert Robin.
"That is all I care to know about it!" said Samson Crow. "I will drive
him out of your tree this very minute!"
Samson Crow flew straight at the owl. The big owl glared at him with
its great glass eyes and never moved. "Caw! Caw!" screamed Samson
Crow, but the big owl sat perfectly still. Around and around the tree
flew Samson Crow, but the big owl sat perfectly still. Samson Crow
perched on a branch and shouted at the big owl, but the big owl did not
even turn his head, nor change the steady gaze of his great glass eyes.
"Help! Help!" screamed Samson Crow, and he flew away to the woods,
and Widow Blunt laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and rocked
backwards and forwards in her splint-bottomed chair.
Robert Robin kept waiting, and saying, "Tut! Tut! Tut!--Tut! Tut! Tut!"
and wishing that the big owl would fly away, but the big owl did not
move, and just stared straight ahead with his great glass eyes.
About four o'clock Widow Blunt put on her sunbonnet and her cotton
gloves with the fingers cut off, and with an eight-quart tin pail with
strips of zinc soldered across the bottom of it, she climbed the
stepladder and picked eight quarts of ripe red cherries from her early
cherry tree, and the big stuffed owl watched her with his great glass
eyes, and never said a word.

Then the Widow Blunt took her eight-quart pail full of ripe red cherries