Chapter 7 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!"

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!"

The whistles of the city were blowing, and the big clock in the Court House was just striking seven, when Robert Robin and his family flew along the shore of the great lake for a short distance, and then suddenly swerved up into the high air over the woods and fields, and at half-past four that afternoon, they could see Brigg's Brambles, and their own woods, with their tall basswood tree standing in the corner of it.

Mister Jim Crow was sitting on a fence stake listening to Mister Bob-o-link who was singing his Spingle, Spangle song, when he saw six robins dart into Robert Robin's basswood tree.

"Some strange robins are in Robert Robin's tree!" he said to himself. "I had better go over and see where they came from, what they are going to do, and who they are!"

So Jim Crow flew over towards the big basswood tree and sang out: "What, ho! Strangers! Whence came ye! Whither bound, and who's't?"

A tired-looking robin hopped to the end of a twig and answered: "Well! Well! If there isn't my old friend, Jim Crow! It does seem so good to get back home again and see the neighbors!"

"Why! It is Robert Robin!" exclaimed Jim Crow. "I thought that you were away on your vacation!"

"We have been, and we have returned!" said Robert Robin.

"You made a short stay of it!" said Jim Crow. "You left us yesterday morning!"

"Can that be possible?" said Robert Robin. "It seems to me that we were away a week! But the very best part of a vacation is the getting back!" said Robert Robin, and Jim Crow said:

"It was very quiet around the woods while you were away. There was no one to sing us a Hurry-up song in the morning, and no one to sing us a Cheer-up song in the afternoon, and no one to sing us a Good-night song when the red sun was sinking behind the purple hill. Mrs. Crow has had the blues all day, Billy Rabbit has been very lonely, and even Melancthon Coon was asking what had become of you; he had missed your singing. I came over here just on purpose to listen to little Mister Bob-o-link sing his Spingle, Spangle song. So you see, Mister Robin, we all need you to cheer us up with your songs and keep us good-natured!"

"Thank you very much, Mister Crow!" said Robert Robin, "I will surely remember to sing you my Good-night song, when the sun goes down behind the hill!"

And that evening, when the red sun was sinking behind the purple hill, and the sky of the west was hung with the tapestry of clouds, and the shadows in the valley were soft as black velvet, and the breath of the wind was like a whisper among the leaves, Robert Robin sang his Good-night song:

"Mellow light!

Mellow light!

Yellow light!

Yellow light!

Has gone!

Has gone!

Let us rest,-

Let us rest!

'Til dawn,-'til dawn!"

Then Mister Robert Robin fluttered down into his own big basswood tree, and he and all of his family slept soundly all night, and not even Mister Screech-owl and his whistle disturbed them.

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