An Exciting Cheat

SOMETHING ABOUT HIS NEIGHBORS

Mister and Mrs. Robert Robin lived in the big basswood tree which stood at the corner of Mister Tom Squirrel's woods.

Their nest was made of sticks, and grass, and mud, and was so well hidden in the largest fork of the tree that if you had been standing near the foot of the big basswood, you could not have seen Mister Robert Robin's nest at all. But if you had been able to fly up into the top of the big basswood tree, then you might have looked down and seen the nest and Mrs. Robert Robin's four greenish blue eggs, right in the middle of it.

But if Mister Robert Robin, or Mrs. Robert Robin had spied you up in their tree, they would have made a great fuss about it. They would have screamed with all their might, and if you had gone near their nest they would have flown right at you, and tried to frighten you away.

Many of Robert Robin's cousins, and aunts, and uncles lived in town. They built their nests in the parks, and in the shade trees along the streets. Some of them even built their nests in the porches, and on the eaves troughs, and in barns, and sheds, and in the church steeples. Others of Robert Robin's family lived out in the country, and had their nests around the farmer's buildings, in orchards, under bridges, in windmills, and in almost every other sort of a place, but Mister and Mrs. Robert Robin would rather live in their own tall basswood tree than any other place in the whole wide world.

Each Fall, when the weather grew cold, and the winds were chilly, and the leaves of the big basswood turned brown, and then blew away, Robert Robin and his whole family flew south, but each Spring when the weather grew warmer, Robert Robin and Mrs. Robin came hurrying back north, to build a new nest in their own basswood tree.

"No other place will ever seem like home to me!" said Mrs. Robin.

"I should never get over feeling homesick, if we should lose our tree!" said Robert Robin.

So every Spring, before the snow banks in the gully were all melted, and before the yellow water had ceased running down the lane, Mister and Mrs. Robert Robin were back in their own tree, and were as busy as could be building a nice new nest.

When Gerald Pox, and Melancthon Coon, and Jim Crow, and Wellington Woodchuck, and Billy Rabbit, and Major Partridge saw Robert Robin flying through the bare woods, or heard him singing his clear notes from the top of his big basswood tree, they would say to themselves, "Robert Robin is back from the south, and Spring will soon be here." And the farmer's wife would say, "I heard a robin singing, it will soon be Spring!" Then she would get her box of garden seeds down from the top shelf of the kitchen cupboard and look to see if she had some tomato seeds, and celery seeds, and pepper seeds, and cabbage seeds to plant in a box by the south window.

Then it would not be long before the snow banks in the gully were all melted, and the farmer would be fixing his fences and getting ready to turn his stock out to pasture, and the farmer's wife's celery plants, and all her other kinds of plants would be up, and Mister Swallow, and Mister Swift, and Mister Bob-o-link, and all the other Mister Birds and their wives would be coming back north, and it would be plain to everybody that Spring was here and that Summer was on the way.

Even the big basswood tree seemed to wait for Robert Robin, and seemed to miss him when he was away. All Winter the beautiful tree waved his bare branches in the air, and when the frosty snow sparkled on the meadows, and the stars were shining in the winter sky, the chilling wind swept through the woods, and the branches of the tall basswood made a sound like a sigh. But almost as quickly as Robert Robin returned, the buds of the big basswood swelled with the green of new leaves, and soon the great tree was no longer bare, but dressed from his foot to his highest twig in broad leaves that fluttered in the summer breezes and made a sound like the whispering of children.

Early every morning as soon as the sun began to light the east, Mister Robert Robin was wide awake, and one of the first sounds that woke the woods in the very early morning was Robert Robin's morning song.

From the highest branch of his tall basswood tree he would sing his "hurry up song," and his clear cheery voice would echo through all the woods.

"Hurry up! Hurry up!

Hurry up! Hurry up!

It is time,-

It is time

To get up-to get up!

Hurry up! Hurry up!"

Then Mister Tom Squirrel would come bounding out of his bed, and Major Partridge would start strutting around, and Mister Wren would shake the dew from his feathers and begin to sing, and in a few minutes all the birds and animals that had been sleeping all night would be frisking and flying around, the sun would begin to shine, the dew would go away, and it would be daylight in the woods.

After Robert Robin had sung everybody out of bed, he would get his breakfast, and then he would be ready for his day's work.

Robert Robin did like to sing, but Mrs. Robin did not care to sing. She was a very quiet sort of person, and did not like to appear in public. She would much rather sit on her pretty greenish-blue eggs. She sat on them to keep them warm so that the little baby robins that were inside the eggs would grow to be strong enough to break the blue shells, and come out and grow up to be big robins.