Exciting Adventures of Mister Robert Robin
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Ben Field >> Exciting Adventures of Mister Robert Robin
"The trouble with you, Hank, is that you are never willing to give up
when you are wrong!" said the farmer. "How could so many cherry pits be
under a basswood tree?"
Just then, one of the baby robins "popped" a pit, and the little cherry
stone rattled against the branches of the basswood and fell to the
ground near the hired man's feet.
The farmer picked it up and said: "Now, look here, Hank! There is no use
of your standing there and telling me that that is a cherry pit, when
both of us saw it drop off that basswood! Cherry pits don't drop off
basswood trees, and for you to try to tell me that I don't know the
difference between a cherry tree and a basswood tree is going just a
little bit too far!"
"Maybe you're right!" said the hired man.
"There ain't no 'maybe' about it!" said the farmer. "I am most generally
right when it comes to understanding nature!"
"All except when you pulled up that poison ivy, barehanded!" said the
hired man, and both of them laughed, and the farmer said:
"Those basswood bobs did look so much like cherry pits, that they would
have fooled anybody but an expert!"
And the hired man said: "They looked so much like cherry pits that the
next time I am over this way, I am going to get some of them, and plant
'em in a box and raise me a cherry orchard!"
After the farmer and his hired man had gone, Mister Gabriel Chipmunk
came out from under his old home stump. Mister Chipmunk was worried. He
did not know what he was going to have to eat next winter.
So he sat on top of his old home stump and tried to think where he
could find something to put in his granary bins.
Jeremiah Yellowbird sat in a bush near by, and when he saw Mister
Chipmunk keeping so still, he said to him:
"What makes you so quiet to-day, Mister Chipmunk?"
"I am worried about what I will have to eat next winter, Mister
Yellowbird! There are no beechnuts, this year, the wild-pea crop is a
failure, the farmer has no fields of grain near my woods, and I have not
seen a groundnut for six seasons!"
"Can't you find something to take the place of those things?" asked
Mister Yellowbird.
"If the country was what it used to be, I would not worry a bit. But
every year it gets worse and worse! Why, last winter, Mrs. Chipmunk and
I had a miserable time living through the winter on wild buckwheat! My
grandfather would have starved rather than eat wild buckwheat! And he
would have starved, all right, if he had boarded at our house last
winter, for wild buckwheat was all that we had! Imagine me, the monarch
of all the woods, living on wild buckwheat!"
"Are you the monarch of the woods, Mister Chipmunk?" asked Jeremiah
Yellowbird.
"I would like to know who has a better right to be called the 'monarch
of the woods,'" said Gabriel Chipmunk. "When I sit on my old home stump
and say 'Chip! Chip! Chip!' everyone knows that I am taking care of the
woods, and if I did not keep a sharp lookout when men, and dogs, and
cats come around, there would be many lives lost! A monarch is supposed
to take care of his realm, and then I have plenty of time to be monarch,
and I like the work, so that makes me the 'monarch of the woods.'"
Something fell from the big basswood tree. It was a cherry pit which one
of the baby robins had "popped."
"Was that a nut which fell from the big basswood?" asked Gabriel
Chipmunk. But Jeremiah Yellowbird did not know, so Mister Chipmunk
hurried over to see, and when Gabriel Chipmunk saw all the nice cherry
pits scattered on the ground under the big basswood, he was very much
pleased, for Gabriel Chipmunk and all his folks liked cherry pits.
Mister Chipmunk filled his two big pockets with the nice cherry pits,
and ran for home as fast as his little legs would carry him.
Gabriel Chipmunk's pockets were in his cheeks, and when he had both
pockets full of cherry pits, his head looked larger than all the rest of
him. Billy Rabbit saw him running through the woods. "Who on earth is
that?" said Billy Rabbit to himself. "That big head is running around
without anybody! Help! Help!" and Billy Rabbit ran home and told Mrs.
Rabbit that he had just seen a terrible head running through the woods.
When Gabriel Chipmunk got home he dumped his two pocketsful of nice
cherry pits into his granary bins, and called Mrs. Chipmunk to come and
help him, and both of them worked as fast as they could and in a very
short time all the nice cherry pits from under Robert Robin's big
basswood tree were safe and snug in Mister Gabriel Chipmunk's granary
under his old home stump.
Both of them were so tired that they went to bed and slept until the
next morning.
Towards night Mister Robert Robin perched on the top of his big basswood
and sang his "Cherry Song," and while he was singing he heard some one
coming through the woods. It was the farmer's hired man. He was going to
get some of the cherry pits to plant in a box.
He scuffed his feet among the leaves, and looked, and looked, but he
could not find even just one cherry pit.
"Where did all those cherry pits go?" he asked himself. "There was
forty-'leven hundred of 'em here this forenoon, and now they are as
scarce as hen's teeth! Some bird must have picked up every last one of
them! I wouldn't have cared, only I was so sure about their bein' cherry
pits, and the farmer hates to get beat in an argument--but now I'll
never hear the last of fryin' them mittens."
The hired man climbed over the fence and stood still. He was listening
to Robert Robin's cherry song.
"Cherry sweeter!
Cherry sweeter!
Cherry sweet!
Cherry sweet!
Call Peter--
Call Peter!
Call Pete,
Call Pete!
Cherry sweet!
Cherry sweeter!
Cherry sweet!"
"That robin is a fine singer, and he is singing about cherries all
right!" said the hired man, "and if I knew as much as he does about what
became of those cherry pits, I could go right to 'em, this minute!"
CHAPTER VI
MISTER ROBIN DECIDES TO TAKE A VACATION
The days sped by, and the baby robins grew so fast that very soon the
four filled the nest chock-full, and so one day Robert Robin was not
much surprised to see two of them standing up in the nest.
"Sit down at once, children!" he said. "You might fall out and frighten
your mother!"
But the next day little Sheldon hopped out of the nest and stood beside
it, and Elizabeth insisted upon standing so near the edge of the nest
that Mrs. Robin was very nervous for fear she would upset the nest and
spill Montgomery and Evelina to the ground.
"Do sit down, child!" said Robert Robin. "Your mother does not like to
have you stand up in the nest that way!" But Elizabeth gave a great jump
and in a moment she was standing on a big limb fluttering her wings,
and getting ready to fly. Then little Sheldon gave a great jump and flew
clear into the maple tree. Mrs. Robin was very much excited, and was
screaming loudly, and Robert Robin was saying, "Tut! Tut!" and jerking
his tail up and down.
Suddenly Evelina stood up and jumped and the nest went rolling over and
over down the side of the tall basswood tree, spilling little Montgomery,
heels over head.
"Do be careful! Do be careful!" screamed Mrs. Robin. "You will all be
killed! You will all be killed!"
But Montgomery was already flopping his wings at a great rate, and had
started to fly when the heavy nest fell right on top of him, and there
was little Montgomery under the nest, and the nest was wrong side up on
the ground.
"Help! Help!" screamed little Montgomery. "Help! Help! I am under the
nest!"
Robert Robin tugged at the nest, but the nest was too heavy for him to
lift. Mrs. Robin came, and both of them tugged and pulled at the nest,
but it was so heavy that both of them together could not lift it.
"Let us tear the nest apart!" said Mrs. Robin, but the dry mud was so
hard that the twigs could not be pulled apart.
Just then Elizabeth went fluttering past, and little Sheldon fell off
his limb, and Evelina began crying--she was so frightened,--so both
parent birds were forced to leave poor little Montgomery under the heavy
nest and look after their other children.
And what a time they had with them! For over an hour the three little
robins went flying in all directions through the woods. Mister Tom
Squirrel sat on a limb and laughed and chuckled, and said to Robert
Robin: "The way your baby robins fly makes me remember the time I showed
my cousins--the flying squirrels--the way to fly straight down!"
But Mister Robin was too excited to feel like visiting with Mister Tom
Squirrel. He was afraid that he would lose one of his children. But at
last the baby robins were tired enough to feel like resting. Little
Sheldon was in the top of a cedar tree, Elizabeth was sitting in a
green osier, and little Evelina was sitting on Mister Chipmunk's stump,
but poor little Montgomery was still under the heavy nest, and neither
Robert Robin nor Mrs. Robin could think of any way to get him out.
Over in the pasture a cow was wearing a cowbell. Every time the cow
moved her head the bell said "Tonk! Tonkle! Tonk! Tonkle!" Robert Robin
could hear the cowbell making the noise to let the farmer know where his
brindle cow was. But Robert Robin kept hearing another sound. "Tonkle!
Tonkle!" Then he heard some one talking, and he saw two little girls
coming into the woods. They were out strawberrying, and they were
carrying tin pails on their arms, and whenever they dropped a strawberry
in their tin pails it made a noise like "Tonkle! Tonkle!"
"Let us go through this corner of the woods, and maybe we will find some
white strawberries!" said one little girl.
"Or some wintergreen berries!" said the other.
"Be careful and not tear your dress on the twigs!" said the first.
"This is an old dress, so I don't care!" said the other.
"There is a bird's nest!" said the first little girl.
"Turn it over and see what is inside of it!" said the other.
So the little girl poked Robert Robin's nest with the toe of her shoe
and turned it over, and out jumped Montgomery Robin, and the first thing
that he did was to open his mouth just as wide as he could. Both the
little girls laughed.
"It is a young robin!" said Lucy, "let's feed it some of our
strawberries!"
"You may feed it some of yours, if you want to, but I am going to take
mine home to mother!" said Lettie, who was a fussy little girl, and her
mother did not eat strawberries. They gave her neuritis and pimples.
"That poor little robin may have been under that nest, days, and days,
and he is almost starved!" said Lucy. "So I am going to feed the poor
thing some of my strawberries!"
So Lucy fed Montgomery three ripe strawberries. "Now that is all you may
have now!" said Lucy to Montgomery. "People who have been having a
famine should not overload their stomachs!"
"Don't touch the dirty thing or you will get bugs on you!" said Lettie.
"Oh! Bugs yourself!" said Lucy. "I hope you step on a snake! It would
serve you right for being so nicey nicey!"
"You are a very rude little girl, to say such things!" said Lettie.
"I am very sorry if I hurt your feelings, Lettie!" said Lucy. "It was
very rude of me to wish that you would step on a snake! I will take it
all back, but I would laugh if you got a spider down your neck!"
Then Lucy and Lettie went out of the woods and left little Montgomery
sitting on the ground, but in a very few minutes he started flying from
stump to stump, and soon he was sitting in the cedar tree close by
little Sheldon.
Towards night Robert Robin and Mrs. Robin coaxed the baby robins back
into the big basswood tree, and all that night the four of them sat on
the same limb and slept just as fine as could be.
At dawn, Robert Robin sang his "Hurry up!" song, then he came back to
see how his family was getting along. The four baby robins looked very
good in their new silky feathers, and they seemed almost as large as
Mrs. Robin, and if their breasts had been red instead of speckled you
could hardly have told them from full-grown robins. But they were still
quite babies, and had to be fed, and it was several days before their
parents taught them to find food for themselves.
"You are a great big man-bird, now. Almost as tall as your father, and
you ought to be ashamed to even think of letting your mother feed you!"
said Mrs. Robin to Montgomery, who still had the habit of opening his
mouth as wide as he could.
About the middle of the week, they were all flying around and getting
their own food, so Robert Robin said to Mrs. Robin: "I have had a
little matter on my mind for quite a while!"
"What is it?" asked Mrs. Robin.
"I have been thinking about taking a vacation!" said Robert Robin. "I
have been working pretty hard, this summer, and the strain is beginning
to tell! Only last night, I dreamed that seven spotted cats were chasing
me through a briar patch! When I awoke I was all covered with a cold
sweat! What I need is a little rest and relaxation!"
"What is relaxation?" asked Mrs. Robin.
"Something like rest, only more refined!" said Robert Robin.
"I think that I need a little vacation!" said Mrs. Robin, "so I will go
along with you!"
"That will be fine!" said Robert Robin, "and we will take the children!
But where shall we go?"
"Where have you been planning on going, dear?" asked Mrs. Robin.
"I would like to go to some quiet, restful place, where there was
plenty to eat and drink, and nothing to do."
"That would be a wonderful place to live!" said Mrs. Robin. "I should
like to stay there always!"
"I was thinking that I would like to loaf around Brigg's Brambles for a
few days, then go over to Black-bug Swamp for a few days, then drop over
to the river for a day or two, or possibly spend a short time at the
lake!"
"Brigg's Brambles is not a very safe place to take the children--there
are so many owls and hawks around, and there is such an odor to
Black-bug Swamp, and the last time we were over to the river, we saw all
those boys shooting with their air guns. I was thinking that if we went
to the mountains or to the seashore we would meet a great many more of
our friends,--but have your own way, dear--I will be perfectly happy
anywhere!"
"Perhaps we had better go to the mountains!" said Robert Robin. "It
would be safer for the children!"
"That would be fine if the weather stays warm, but I shall never forget
that awful chill I had, year before last!"
"That settles it!" said Robert Robin. "We will go to the seashore, where
the weather is almost always good!"
"You have the best judgment about everything, dear!" said Mrs. Robin.
"You always know just how to decide it! It is perfectly wonderful how
quickly you make up your mind!"
"My father was the same way!" said Robert Robin. "I think it runs in our
family!" Then Robert Robin felt so fine that he flew up to the top of a
hickory tree and sang his "Pick Pickles" song.
"Pick pickles!
Pick pickles!
A teasel tick tickles!
A peasel pick pickles!
A teasel pick pickles!"
And old Mister Woodpecker stopped drumming on his tree, and looked at
Robert Robin and laughed and said:
"Every time I hear you sing that foolish song, I have to laugh in spite
of myself!"
Then Old Mister Woodpecker started to drill another hole, but he was
still so full of giggles that he could not get his mouth closed, and
every time just as he went to tap the tree with his bill he would give a
giggle.
"A teasel pick pickles! Ha! Ha! Ha!" laughed Old Mister Woodpecker. "Ho!
Ho! Ho!" and it was four minutes before he could get the corner of his
lips down so that he could get his mouth closed.
So Old Mister Woodpecker could not laugh and work at the same time, and
that may be the reason why only a very few people have ever heard Mister
Woodpecker laugh out loud, and not so very many people have even seen
him smile.
CHAPTER VII
MISTER ROBERT ROBIN AND HIS FAMILY TAKE A VACATION
In the country where Robert Robin lived there were a great many lakes
and streams. The streams ran down through the valleys, and emptied into
the lakes, and the waters from the lakes emptied into larger streams
which flowed into a great lake which looked as large as the sea.
Mister Robert Robin thought that the big lake was the sea, and all the
other robins in his part of the country thought the same thing, so it
was to the shore of the great lake that Robert Robin and his family went
for their vacation.
The children were delighted with the trip across the country. It was
great fun to fly from one woods to another, and then look around to see
what new things could be found. No one was in a hurry to get anywhere.
"We have all the time there is!" said Mrs. Robin.
"Let us not be in a hurry!" said Robert Robin. "When one is taking a
vacation he should never be in a hurry to get where he is going!"
"Much haste, less speed!" said Mrs. Robin. "Children, get your father to
sing you his Wait-a-bit song!"
Then all the youngster robins began to coax Robert Robin to sing his
Wait-a-bit song.
"Daddy! Please sing us your Wait-a-bit song! Daddy! Please sing us your
Wait-a-bit song!"
So at last Robert Robin perched himself in the top of a tall butternut
tree and sang them his Wait-a-bit song:
"Never hurry,
Wait a bit!
Never worry,
Wait a bit!
Do your work!
Never shirk!
Never hurry!
Never worry!
Wait a bit!"
Before Robert Robin had finished singing his Wait-a-bit song Mister
Catbird came rushing over from the edge of a tangled swamp, and perched
himself near Robert Robin, in the top of the tall butternut tree. When
Robert Robin was through with his song, Mister Catbird said: "Mister
Robin, you are a stranger to me but as I have never heard any other
robin sing that same song, I would be pleased if you would do me the
favor of singing it over once more!"
So Robert Robin sang his Wait-a-bit song over again for Mister Catbird,
and Mister Catbird said: "Now sing it again, and I will sing along with
you! I would like very much to learn that song! It is one of the best
songs that I ever heard."
So Robert Robin sang the song again, and Mister Catbird sang along with
him, but although Mister Catbird had a very fine voice, and could sing
very good indeed, he put in so many wrong words that Robert Robin got
all mixed up and sang a part of his Cherry song.
That made Mister Catbird laugh, and then he made a noise like a cat, and
the little robins were very much surprised to see a nice-looking bird
like Mister Catbird who could make a noise almost exactly like a cat.
Mister Catbird was a jolly person, and he was full of jokes. He sat
there in the top of the tall butternut tree, and pretended that he was
Mister Blackbird, and he sang Mister Blackbird's song all the way
through. Then he said "Meow!" and then he sang a song very much like
Robert Robin's "Rain" song, then he said "Meow!" again, and laughed. It
made Robert Robin very angry to have Mister Catbird spoiling a good song
like that by saying "Meow!" and he thought that Mister Catbird was
making fun of him, so he said to Mister Catbird:
"I am very pleased to have had the pleasure of meeting you, sir, but we
are on our way to the seashore, so we must hurry along! Good
afternoon!"
"Good afternoon!" shouted Mister Catbird. "Good afternoon, EVERYBODY!
MEOW!"
As Robert Robin, and his family flew away they heard Mister Catbird
singing with all his might:
"Never hurry!
Wait a bit!
Never worry!
MEOW! MEOW!
Ha! Ha! Ha!
Do your work!
MEOW! MEOW!"
And the young robins couldn't help but laugh, but Mister Robert Robin
pretended that he did not hear Mister Catbird at all, and started
talking with Mrs. Robin about something else.
Before night they came to the shore of the great lake, and at first the
little robins were badly frightened. They saw the hundreds of gulls in
the air and thought that they were all hawks.
"Those are not hawks, children!" said Mrs. Robin. "Those are sea gulls,
but there are many hawks here, too, but if you keep under the cover of
the bushes, the hawks will not see you, and if a hawk cannot see you, he
cannot catch you!"
For a long time they sat in an apple tree and looked at the great lake,
and watched the gulls swooping and soaring through the air. Many boats
were plowing through the water, and many people were strolling along the
beach or swimming in the surf.
"I want a drink!" said little Sheldon.
"I want a drink!" said little Elizabeth.
"I want a drink!" said little Evelina.
"I want a drink!" said little Montgomery.
"The water in the lake is not fit to drink, children!" said Robert
Robin. "It tastes bric-a-brac-ish! We will go over to General Scamp's
fountain, and get a drink of marble water!"
[Illustration: They sat in an apple tree and watched the gulls swooping
and soaring through the air.
(Page 76) (Exciting Adventures of Mr. Robert Robin)]
So Robert Robin and his family went over to General Scamp's lawn and had
a fine drink from his nice bird fountain, and Robert Robin plunged into
the bird basin and took a bath, and spattered water all over little
Evelina.
But in a few moments all of them were bathing in General Scamp's bird
basin.
"There is nothing like a cold plunge, when one is traveling!" said
Robert Robin. "Now I will teach you children to catch earthworms!"
"Oh! Goody!" shouted all the young birdsters. "In which tree are they?"
"They are not in any tree! They are in General Scamp's lawn!" said
Robert Robin, as he hopped down and began tripping over the green grass.
Suddenly he stood perfectly still and turned his head to one side.
Robert Robin was listening and looking closely at the ground.
"Watch your father, children!" said Mrs. Robin. "You must learn to stop,
look, and listen before you become a good worm hunter!"
Robert Robin was standing as still as a stick. Then, like a flash, he
drove his sharp beak into the green sod and pulled out a long wiggly
worm.
In an instant the young robins had seized the worm and were pulling this
way and that.
"Look out! Look out!" screamed Robert Robin. "A cat is coming! A cat is
coming!"
The young robins dropped the big worm, and all of them flew up into a
tulip tree.
The big cat tiptoed across the lawn, until she came to an iron fountain.
No water was coming from the fountain, and its basin was dry. It was an
old fountain and was not much used.
"Ho! Ho!" said the cat. "Here is a good place to hide! I will get into
this old fountain and wait until a robin gets near enough for me to
catch. Then I will pounce upon it!"
So the big cat hid in the old iron fountain.
A man was trimming the hedge. He was a caretaker, and he saw the big cat
hide in the old iron fountain.
"That old cat thinks that she will hide in the old iron fountain and
catch a bird!" he said to himself. "She is the same cat that has been
catching birds around here all summer! What she needs is a good
dousing!"
The man laid down his clippers, and tiptoed along behind the hedge until
he came to a place where a little iron wheel stuck up out of the ground.
The man took hold of the little iron wheel and turned it just as quickly
as he could, and the water came rushing out of the old iron fountain,
and the big cat jumped first one way and then another, and whichever way
she sprang she spattered right into streams of cold water that squirted
all over her.
"Pstt! Pstt!" she said as she jumped out of the basin, and ran across
the nice green lawn, and hurried home.
When the big cat got home she shook herself and said: "That old iron
fountain is no good! It is a poor place to hide! I am as wet as a mop!
Who would ever have expected that old fountain to blow up like that?
General Scamp is letting his place run down so fast that I do not think
I will go over there any more! I will dry my fur, then I will go over
to the dump and catch a rat!"
When Robert Robin saw the big cat get wet in the old iron fountain, he
told the little robins never to go near that place. "That big cat got
very wet, and a little bird, like you, might drown!" he said.
Then, as it was getting towards night, Robert Robin led his family over
to the city park. He expected to get a room in the Bird House, but the
rooms were all taken, so Robert Robin and his family were forced to
sleep all night in a maple tree.
During the night a dense bank of fog rolled in from the lake, and the
black smoke of a factory chimney drifted through the park. The lights of
the city and the noise of the traffic kept Robert Robin's family awake
most of the night.
"I do not enjoy sleeping in a strange tree!" said Mrs. Robin, the next
morning.
"The fog and smoke were very bad!" said Robert Robin, "and those bright
lights made my eyes smart!"
Little Evelina had caught cold, Montgomery had hurt his toe, and the
other youngster birds were tired and not a bit pleasant, so when Mrs.
Robin said, "I would like to go back to our own basswood tree, and build
us a nice new nest, in the place where the old one was, then I could lay
four more eggs, and we would have plenty of time to raise another family
this summer!" When Mrs. Robin said that, all the young robins cried at
once: "I want to go home! I want to go home!" and all that Robert Robin
said was, "I would like to go to some place where I can get a good
night's sleep!"