The Tale of Bobby Bobolink | Page 6

the meeting. So she had hovered near-by, where she could
hear everything without being seen.

"Sir!" she said to Buddy Brown Thrasher. "Kindly point out these
hidden friends of my husband!"
Buddy Brown Thrasher looked somewhat uneasy.
"I--I haven't seen anybody in the bushes," he stammered.
"Find them!" Mrs. Bobolink ordered. Her manner was so stern that
Buddy Brown Thrasher did not dare disobey. He searched high and low.
But he couldn't find a bird anywhere in the pasture.
"You see you were mistaken," Mrs. Bobolink told him severely.
Everybody agreed with her. And then and there they made Bobby
Bobolink a member of the Pleasant Valley Singing Society. There was
no doubt that he had sung his song without a bit of help.
"It was wonderful!" everybody exclaimed--everybody but Buddy
Brown Thrasher. He muttered that it was no wonder he made a mistake,
for he didn't know the song himself. And he said it was much too fast
for his taste.

VIII
THE HOUSE IN THE MEADOW
BOBBY BOBOLINK and his wife had talked a good deal about the
home they were going to have.
And unlike some people, who are forever planning things but never
begin the actual doing of them, they soon set to work to build their nest.
First, of course, they had to find a pleasant place for it. So they looked
the ground over carefully. Bobby Bobolink favored the exact center of
the big meadow building site, for he said that if Johnnie Green ever
came into the meadow he was more likely to take a short cut across a
corner of it than he was to walk straight through the middle.

"You may not know," he said to his wife, "that Farmer Green doesn't
care to have the grass on the farm trampled down."
But Mrs. Bobolink replied that there were other things to think of. She
said that she liked to live in a rather moist place--that such a spot was
comfortable in hot weather. And furthermore she wanted to be near
water. "If you need a drink on a warm day it's not always convenient to
go far out of your way for it," she pointed out.
Well, Bobby Bobolink saw at once that Mrs. Bobolink had made up her
mind, and there was no use trying to change it. Besides, he wanted to
please her.
"Then, my dear, where would you like to have our house built?" he
asked.
"I should prefer to settle in the lower end of the meadow, near Cedar
Swamp," she replied. "The ground thereabouts is just damp enough to
suit me. And there's always plenty of water to drink in the swamp....
Besides," she added, "it's somewhat marshy in that part of the meadow.
"And you won't find Johnny Green trespassing down there. He might
get his feet wet!"
Bobby Bobolink turned his head away so that his wife wouldn't notice
the smile that flitted across his face. He saw that Mrs. Bobolink didn't
know Johnnie Green very well.
In summer Johnnie almost always went barefooted. And he never
minded getting his feet wet any more than Paddy Muskrat did.
But if his wife wanted their nest near the swamp, Bobby Bobolink was
willing to oblige her.
"Very well!" he said. "Let's go down there now and look for the best
place to build."
So off they flew. And after a careful search they discovered a snug little

hollow in the ground that entirely suited them both.
Since the spot was somewhat moist, early in the season as it was the
grass grew thick and high all around, making a fine screen to prevent
prying eyes from seeing what was to be hidden there.
Having decided on their building site, Bobby Bobolink and his wife
began to gather weed stems, leaves and coarse grasses, all left over
from the year before and dried by the spring sunshine. Those served for
the outside of the nest. As for the inside, they lined that with soft, fine
grasses, because they expected to keep something precious in that nest
before a great while.

IX
JOHNNIE GREEN INTRUDES
BOBBY BOBOLINK and his wife had finished their new nest.
"There!" Mrs. Bobolink exclaimed, as she gave the lining of soft
grasses a final pat. "There's not another thing to be done to it."
"It's perfect!" Bobby told her. "But I think I can make one slight
improvement, for we mustn't forget Henry Hawk." And while his wife
looked on somewhat anxiously he bent a few grass stalks over so that
they completely hid the nest from anybody passing overhead.
"Henry Hawk will never spy our nest now," Bobby remarked a few
minutes later, as he flew back and forth over the spot and tried in vain
to catch a glimpse of