The Tale of Jolly Robin
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| Publié par | urra |
| Publié le | 08 décembre 2010 |
| Nombre de lectures | 36 |
| Langue | English |
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Title: The Tale of Jolly Robin Author: Arthur Scott Bailey Illustrator: Harry L. Smith Release Date: March 9, 2009 [EBook #28293] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF JOLLY ROBIN ***
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THE TALE OF JOLLY ROBIN
TUCK-ME-IN TALES (Trademark Registered) BY ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY AUTHOR OF SLEEPY-TIME TALES (Trademark Registered)
THETALE OFJOLLYROBIN THETALE OFOLDMR. CROW THETALE OFSOLOMONOWL THETALE OFJASPERJAY THETALE OFRUSTYWREN THETALE OFDADDYLONGLEGS THETALE OFKIDDIEKATYDID THETALE OFBUSTERBUMBLEBEE THETALE OFFREDDYFIREFLY THETALE OFBETSYBUTTERFLY THETALE OFBOBBYBOBOLINK THETALE ORCHIRPYCRICKET THETALE OFMRS. LADYBUG THETALE OFREDDYWERCKPEODO THETALE OFGERHTOMDNARGOOSE
Jolly Robin Asks Jasper Jay About The Sign Frontispiece—(Page 44)
TUCK-ME-IN TALES THE TALE OF JOLLY ROBIN
BY ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
Author of “SLEEPY-TIME TALES”
(Trademark Registered)
ILLUSTRATED BY HARRY L. SMITH
NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS
Made in the United States of America
Copyright, 1917, by GROSSET & DUNLAP
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I Nestlings II Learning to Fly III The Wide, Wide World IV What Jolly Did Best V Laughing for Mr. Crow VI Tickling a Nose VII A New Way to Travel VIII Jolly is Left Behind IX Jolly’s Mistake X The White Giant XI What a Snowball Did XII Jolly Feels Better XIII The Hermit XIV One or Two Blunders XV Lost—A Cousin! XVI Jealous Jasper Jay XVII Only a Rooster XVIII On Top of the Barn XIX Curious Mr. Crow XX The Four-Armed Man XXI A Doleful Ditty XXII Shocking Manners XXIII A Cold Greeting
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THE TALE OF JOLLY ROBIN
I NESTLINGS Of course, there was a time, once, when Jolly Robin was just a nestling himself. With two brothers and one sister—all of them, like him, much spotted with black—he lived in a house in one of Farmer Green’s apple trees. The house was made of grass and leaves, plastered on the inside with mud, and lined with softer, finer grass, which his mother had chosen with the greatest care. But Jolly never paid much attention to his first home. What interested him more than anything else was food. From dawn till dark, he was alwayscheepingsince the other children were just asfor something to eat. And hungry as he was, those four growing babies kept their parents busy finding food for them. It was then that Jolly Robin learned to like angleworms. And though he ate greedily of insects and bugs, as well as wild berries, he liked angleworms best. Jolly and his sister and his brothers could always tell when their father or their mother brought home some dainty, because the moment the parent lighted upon the limb where the nest was built they could feel their home sink slightly, from the added weight upon the branch. Then the youngsters would set up a loud squalling, with a great craning of necks and stretching of orange-colored mouths. Sometimes, when the dainty was specially big, Mr. or Mrs. Robin would say, “Cuck! cuck!” That meant “Open wide!” But they seldom found it necessary to give that order. Somehow, Jolly Robin managed to eat more than the rest of the nestlings. And so he grew faster than the others. He soon learned a few tricks, too. For instance, if Mrs. Robin happened to be sitting on the nest, to keep her family warm, when Mr. Robin returned with a lunch for the children, Jolly had a trick that he played on his mother, in case she didn’t move off the nest fast enough to suit him. He would whisper to the rest of the children. And then they would jostle their fond parent, lifting her up above them, and sometimes almost upsetting her, so that she had hard work to keep from falling off the nest. Mrs. Robin did not like that trick very well. But she knew that Jolly would not annoy her with it long. Indeed, he was only eleven days old when he left his birthplace and went out into the wide world. You see, the young folk grew so fast that they soon more than filled the house. So there was nothing their parents could do but persuade them to leave home and learn to fly.
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One day, therefore, Mr. Robin did not bring his children’s food to the edge of the nest and drop it into their mouths. Instead, he stood on the limb a little distance away from them and showed them a plump angleworm. The sight of that dainty was more than Jolly Robin could resist. He scrambled boldly out of the nest; and tottering up to his father on his wobbling legs, he snatched the tempting morsel out of his proud parent’s bill. Jolly never went back to the nest after that. The next day Mrs. Robin coaxed the other children from home in the same fashion. And though it may seem a heartless act, it was really the best thing that could have happened to Jolly and his sister and his brothers. You see, they had to learn to fly. And so long as they stayed in the nest they could never learn a difficult feat like flying.
II LEARNING TO FLY After Jolly Robin had gulped down the fat angleworm with which his father had coaxed him to leave the nest, he clung desperately to the limb. With no food in sight he had plenty of time to look about him and to be alarmed. The day was not gone before he had a great fright. He tumbled out of the apple tree and fell squawking and fluttering upon the ground. Luckily, his mother happened to be at home. She went to Jolly at once and told him not to be afraid. “Nothing will hurt you,” she said, “if you’ll only keep still. But if you squall like that, the cat will find you.” It may seem strange, but his mother’s words frightened Jolly all the more. They scared him so thoroughly that he stopped making a noise, anyhow. And that was how he learned never to talk when he was on the ground near a house where a cat might live. “Now,” said Jolly’s mother, as soon as he was still, “I’ll teach you a new game. Just watch me!” And spreading her wings, she flapped them, and sprang into the air. Soon Jolly was trying to imitate her. And it was not long before he found himself gliding a short distance, skimming along just off the ground. But in spite of all his efforts, he couldn’t help falling again. Though his mother tried to show him how to fly into a tree-top, Jolly Robin seemed unable to learn the trick. At last Mr. Robin said to his wife: “I’ll teach him the rest. You’ve made a good beginning. But he must learn more at once. There’s no telling when the cat may come into the orchard to hunt for field-mice. And you know what would happen then.” His wife shuddered. But Mr. Robin told her not to worry. “I’ll soon have this youngster so he can fly as well as anybody,” he declared. So he went and hopped about on the ground with Jolly for a little while, showing him how to find worms beneath the grass carpet of the orchard. And then, in a loud voice, Mr. Robin suddenly cried: “The cat! The cat!” And he flew into an old tree near-by. Jolly Robin had never seen Farmer Green’s cat. But he had heard that she was a dreadful, fierce creature. And when his father shouted her name Jolly was so startled that he forgot he didn’t quite know how to fly. Before he knew what he was doing, he followed his father right up into the old apple tree and perched himself on a low branch. That was the way he learned to fly, for he never had the least trouble about it afterward. And as soon as he realized that he had actually flown from the ground to the bough he was so pleased that he began to laugh merrily. As for the cat, she was not in the orchard at all. Indeed, Jolly’s father had not said that she was. You see, he had played a joke on his son. Now, up to that time Jolly Robin had not been named. You must remember that he was not two weeks old. And having three other children of the same age, his parents had not been able to think of names for all of them. But this big youngster laughed so heartily that his father named him “Jolly,” on the spot. And “Jolly” he remained ever afterward.
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III THE WIDE, WIDE WORLD After he learned to fly, Jolly Robin’s father took him into the woods to spend each night in a roost where there were many other young robins, whose fathers had likewise brought them there. Jolly learned a great deal from being with so many new friends. It was not long before he could find plenty of food for himself, without help from anyone. He discovered, too, that there was safety in numbers. For example, if Jasper Jay made too great a nuisance of himself by bullying a young robin, a mob of robins could easily put Jasper to flight. “Always help other people!That was a motto that all the youngsters had to learn. And another was this:” “Followyour father’s lead!” Later in the season, in October, when the robin cousins and uncles and aunts and sisters and brothers and all the rest of the relations made their long journey to their winter homes in the South, Jolly found that there was a good reason for such rules. If he hadn’t followed his father then he might have lost his way, because —since it was the first time he had ever been out of Pleasant Valley—he knew nothing whatever about travelling. He looked forward with much interest to the journey, for as the days grew shorter he heard a great deal of talk about the trip among his elders. And while he was waiting for the day when they should leave he became acquainted with many new and delicious morsels to eat. He roamed about picking wild grapes, mulberries and elderberries. And he did not scorn a large, green katydid when he chanced to find one. There was always some new dainty to be sampled; though as the weather grew colder Jolly began to understand that in winter Pleasant Valley would not be so fine a place to live. However, he managed to find food enough so that he continued to grow rapidly. The night after he found a mountain ash on a hillside, full of bright red berries, his father said that he seemed much taller than he had been that morning. “You must have eaten a great many of those berries,” said Mr. Robin. “Well, I notice one thing,” Jolly observed. “My waistcoat is fast losing its black spots. And it’s redder than it was. The red berries certainly colored it in some way.” Mr. Robin replied that he had never heard of such a thing happening. He looked curiously at his son’s waistcoat. “Itdoesseem to look different,” he said. “It’s brighter than it was.” Really, that was only because Jolly was fast growing up. But neither he nor his father stopped to think of that. And since Jolly had learned that motto, “Followyour father’s lead,” he thought his waistcoat ought to be just as red as old Mr. Robin’s was. So Jolly visited the mountain ash each day and fairly stuffed himself with the bright red fruit. It did him no harm, anyhow. And he enjoyed eating it. And the next spring, when Jolly Robin returned to Pleasant Valley, after spending the winter in the South, there was not a redder waistcoat than his in all the neighborhood.
IV WHAT JOLLY DID BEST Jolly Robin had something on his mind. For several days he had been turning a certain matter over in his head. But in spite of all his thinking, he seemed unable to find any answer to the question that was troubling him. So at last he decided he would have to ask somebody to help him. And that was why Jolly stopped Jimmy Rabbit near the garden one day. “I want your advice,” he told Jimmy Rabbit. “Certainly!” that young gentleman replied. And he sat himself down upon his wheelbarrow and looked very earnest. “If it’s anything about gardening,” he said, “I should advise you to raise cabbages, by all means.” But Jolly Robin said he wasn’t thinking of planting a garden. “In fact,” he explained, “the trouble is, I don’t know what to do. I’d like to have some regular work, you know. And since you’ve had a good deal of experience, having run a tooth-pulling parlor, a barber-shop, and a shoe-store, I thought you might be able to tell me what would be a good business for me to take up.” For a few minutes Jimmy Rabbit did not speak. But he nodded his head wisely. “Let me see!” he said at last. “What’s the thing you do best?”
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Jolly Robin replied at once that he thought he could fly better than he could do anything else. And he felt so happy, because he was sure Jimmy Rabbit was going to help him, that he began to laugh gaily. And he couldn’t help singing a snatch of a new song he had heard that morning. And then he laughed again. “You’re mistaken,” Jimmy Rabbit said to him. “You fly well enough, I dare say. But there are others who can beat you at flying.... No!” he declared. “What you can do better than anybody I know is tolaugh. And if I were you I should make laughing my regular business.” That idea struck Jolly Robin as being so funny that he laughed harder than ever. And Jimmy Rabbit nodded his head again, as if to say, “I’m right and I know it!” At last Jolly Robin stopped laughing long enough to ask Jimmy to explain how anyone could make a business of laughing. “I don’t see how it could be done,” said Jolly Robin. “Why—it’s simple enough!” Jimmy told him. “All you need do is to find somebody who will hire you to laugh for him. There are people, you know, who find it very difficult to laugh. I should think they’d be glad to pay somebody to do their laughing for them.” “Name someone!” Jolly Robin urged him. And Jimmy Rabbit did. “There’s old Mr. Crow!” he said. “You know how solemn he is. It’s positively painful to hear him try to laugh at a joke. I’m sure he would be delighted with this idea. And if I were you I’d see him before somebody else does.” Jolly Robin looked puzzled. “Who would ever think of such a thing but you?” he asked. “Nobody!” Jimmy Rabbit replied. “But I like the scheme so well that I almost wish I hadn’t mentioned it. And unless you make your bargain with old Mr. Crow at once I may decide to go into the laughing business myself.... My advice to you,” he said, “is to hurry!” So Jolly Robin thanked him. And then he flew away to find old Mr. Crow. Of course, he went to the cornfield first.
V LAUGHING FOR MR. CROW Sure enough! old Mr. Crow was in the cornfield. And though he was feeling somewhat peevish that morning, because a coon had disturbed his rest the night before, he listened to what Jolly Robin had to say. “I’ve come to ask you a question,” Jolly told him. “I’ve decided to go into business—the laughing business. And I want to inquire if you wouldn’t like to engage me to do your laughing for you ” . Well, that struck old Mr. Crow as being very funny. He forgot all about his loss of sleep. And his eye twinkled quite merrily. He tried to laugh, too; but it was a pitiful attempt—no more than a hoarse cackle, which was, as Jimmy Rabbit had said, positively painful. Old Mr. Crow seemed to realize that he was making a very queer sound. He hastily turned his laugh into a cough and pretended that he had a kernel of corn stuck in his throat. “What are your prices?” he asked Jolly Robin. “Are you going to charge by the day or by the laugh?” “Just as you prefer!” Jolly answered. “Well, I’ll have to think about it,” old Mr. Crow told him. “It’s a question that I wouldn’t care to decide in a hurry. If I paid you by the day you might not laugh at all. And if I paid you by the laugh you might laugh all the time.... It would be pretty expensive, either way. And I don’t believe I’d like that.” “I’ll tell you what I’ll do,” said Jolly Robin then. “I’ll stay with you one day for nothing. And we’ll see how the arrangement suits us. ” That suggestion pleased Mr. Crow. “Agreed!” he said quickly. “And now,” he added, “you may laugh for me, because I am quite delighted. ” So Jolly Robin laughed happily. And old Mr. Crow remarked that it was afairlaugh, though not so loud as he would have liked. “I’ll do better next time,” Jolly assured him. “Good!” said Mr. Crow. “And now, since I’ve finished my breakfast, we’ll go over to the woods and see what’s going on there this morning.” The first person they saw in the woods was Peter Mink. He was fishing for trout in Broad Brook. And old Mr. Crow, as soon as he spied him, sang out: “How many of Farmer Green’s fish have you eaten this morning?”
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Peter Mink was just crawling out of the water, with a fish in his mouth. When he heard Mr. Crow calling to him, he dropped his trout upon a rock and looked up quickly. “How much of Farmer Green’s corn have you stolen for your breakfast?” he cried. At that Jolly Robin began to laugh. But Mr. Crow stopped him quickly. “Don’t laugh!” the old gentleman squawked. “There’s nothing to laugh at, so far as I can see.” So Jolly managed to smother his laughter, for he noticed that Mr. Crow was angry. “You’ll have to be careful,” Mr. Crow warned him. “You mustn’t laugh at the wrong time, you know.” “I’ll do my best,” Jolly Robin promised. And he could see already that old Mr. Crow was going to be hard to please.
VI TICKLING A NOSE Old Mr. Crow did not want to stay near the brook to talk with Peter Mink. Calling to Jolly Robin to follow him, he flapped his way to the edge of the woods and sat in a tree overlooking the pasture. “Here comes Tommy Fox!” Mr. Crow exclaimed. “We ought to have some fun with him. So when it’s time for you to laugh for me, don’t forget to laugh loudly.” “I’ll remember,” Jolly promised him. And just by way of practice he chirruped so merrily that Tommy Fox pricked up his ears and came bounding up to the tree where Jolly and Mr. Crow were sitting. “Good morning!” Mr. Crow cried to Tommy. Is that a hen’s feather that’s stuck behind your ear?” he asked “ very solemnly. “No!” said Tommy Fox. “It’s a crow’s; and I certainly had a fine breakfast.” Now, Jolly Robin wasn’t quite sure whether he ought to laugh or not. And then Tommy winked at him. So Jolly thought there must be a joke somewhere and he began to chirrup as loudly as he could. “For pity’s sake, keep still!” old Mr. Crow snapped. “But you wanted me to laugh louder,” Jolly reminded him. “Yes,” said Mr. Crow—“when there’s anything to laugh at.” “But didn’t Tommy Fox make a joke?” Jolly Robin asked. “A very poor one!” old Mr. Crow replied. “A very poor joke, indeed!... I see,” he added, “I see you’ve not had much experience laughing for people. And here’s where you make a mistake. You laugh atother people’s jokes, which is all wrong. After this you must laugh atmyjokes—do you understand?” Jolly Robin said he understood. And Mr. Crow remarked that he was glad there would be no more trouble. “And now,” the old fellow said, “now we’ll go over to the swamp, where Uncle Sammy Coon lives. We ought to have some fun with him.” So over to the swamp they flew, where they found Uncle Sammy Coon sunning himself in the top of a tall hemlock. “How-dy-do!” said Mr. Crow. But Uncle Sammy Coon did not answer. “We’re in luck!” Mr. Crow said with a chuckle. “I declare, I believe the old beggar’s asleep. Just watch me play a practical joke on him!” So Mr. Crow lighted on a branch near Uncle Sammy Coon and began tickling his nose. Pretty soon Uncle Sammy Coon sneezed. And when that happened, Mr. Crow jumped back quickly. But Uncle Sammy didn’t awake—at least, he didn’t open his eyes. So Mr. Crow tickled his nose again. Now, old Mr. Crow was so amused that he glanced at Jolly Robin, to see if he was watching. And in that instant when Mr. Crow looked away, Uncle Sammy Coon leaped at him. He caught Mr. Crow by the tail, too. The old gentleman set up a great din. He squawked, “Help! help!” at the top of his voice and flapped his broad wings. The struggle was over in a moment. By a great effort Mr. Crow broke away, leaving one of his tail-feathers with Uncle Sammy Coon, and flew into another tree near-by. Then Jolly Robin laughed as if he would never stop. He thought that it must be the proper time to laugh, because Mr. Crow had said he was going to play a joke on Uncle Sammy. Mr. Crow, however, seemed to think differently about the matter. “Do keep quiet!” he cried. “There’s nothing to laugh at, so far as I can see.”
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“But you said you were going to play a joke on Uncle Sammy Coon, didn’t you?” Jolly inquired. “Yes!” Mr. Crow replied. “But it’s no joke to lose a tail-feather. And I wouldn’t think of laughing at what just happened.... Besides,” he continued, “your laughter is altogether wrong. What you must try to do is to laugh very sadly. In fact,” he added, “I wouldn’t mind if you shed a few tears, because I feel quite upset over this unfortunate accident.” Well, Jolly Robin saw at once that it was impossible for him to please Mr. Crow. “My laughter,” he said, “is always merry. I couldn’t laugh sadly, no matter how hard I might try. And as for shedding tears, I couldn’t weep for you even if you lost all your tail-feathers, Mr. Crow.” “Then you may leave at once!” Mr. Crow cried, just as if Farmer Green’s pasture belonged to him. “Yes!” Jolly Robin answered. “I may—and then again, I may not!” And since he stayed right there and laughed, old Mr. Crow himself flew away. It was a long while, too, before he could bear to hear people laugh. For he thought they must be laughing at him, because he had lost a tail-feather. And perhaps that was what amused Jolly Robin, though I never thought of that before.
VII A NEW WAY TO TRAVEL The time had come when Jolly Robin was ready to begin his long journey to the South, for it was growing quite cold. On some days there was no sun at all. And even when the weather was fair the sun rose late and went to bed early. It was exactly the sort of weather Jolly Robin did not like. “No doubt you’ll be leaving us soon,” Jasper Jay remarked to Jolly one day, when the two chanced to meet in Farmer Green’s woods, where the beeches grew. “I expect to start to-morrow,” Jolly Robin answered with a short laugh. The mere thought of his warm, light-flooded winter home in the Southland made him feel glad. “Well, well!” Jasper Jay exclaimed. “I’m glad I happened to see you, for I know of a new way to travel.” And Jolly Robin wanted to know all about it. “If it’s a better way than the old, I’ll be pleased to try it,” he said. “Oh! it’s much better,” Jasper told him. “If I hadn’t made up my mind to spend the winter in Pleasant Valley, I’d go the new way myself. But the beechnut crop is good this fall. So I shall stay right here to enjoy it.” “Tell me how we’re to go, if you please!” Jolly Robin urged him. “We?” said Jasper. You don’t mean to say you are going with acrowd, do you?” “ “Why, yes!” Jolly Robin replied. “All the Robins are leaving to-morrow. And I had intended to go with them.” Jasper Jay shook his head. “Take my advice and don’t do any such thing,” he said. “You’ll find it quieter travelling alone. And though you may not know it, it’s the fashionable thing to do.” Jolly Robin laughed when Jasper said that. “But I’m not a fashionable person!” he exclaimed. “Then you should become one,” Jasper told him. “Besides, the new way iseasier, as well as more stylish. But if you’reafraidto try something new, of course I wouldn’t think of urging you.” “I’m not afraid!” Jolly Robin cried. “And if you’ll only tell me what I’m to do, I promise you I’ll do it!” “Good!” said Jasper Jay. “Meet me here day after to-morrow and I’ll start you on your journey. I can’t explain anything now, because I must hurry over to the woods at once, where my cousin, Mr. Crow, is waiting for me.” Then he flew away, screaming a loud good-by as he went. So Jolly Robin hastened back to the orchard, to find his wife and tell her what he had decided to do. He had no difficulty at all in finding her. But he had no end of trouble trying to persuade her to travel with him the new way, instead of going along with the crowd in the good, old-fashioned style. In fact, she raised so many objections, saying how lonely it would be and how dangerous it was to travel in a small party and that she didn’t want to be fashionable—she raised so many objections that at last Jolly Robin said very well! she might do as she pleased. But as for him,hewas going to meet Jasper Jay just as he had promised. And since the new way was easier, he expected to reach their winter home long before she arrived, even if he did start a day later. But he was disappointed, all the same. And he kept up such a constant laughing and joking all the rest of that day that his wife knew he must be feeling quite out of sorts. For that was a way Jolly Robin had. The worse he felt, the happier he always acted. And it was not a bad
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way, either.
VIII JOLLY IS LEFT BEHIND All of Jolly Robin’s friends and relations were greatly surprised when they saw him bidding his wife and children good-by, on the day the Robin family started from Pleasant Valley for their winter home in the South. “What’s this?” they cried. “Aren’t you coming with us?” And Jolly Robin laughed and said to them gaily: “Not to-day! But you’ll find me waiting for you when you reach your journey’s end.” His wife, however, shook her head. “It’s one of his queer notions—his and Jasper Jay’s,” she explained. “Tut, tut!” her husband said. And he chucked her under the chin—and winked at his friends. There was no time to say anything more, for everyone was eager to start. So the travellers called good-by to Jolly, while he waved a farewell to them. It was not many minutes before he was the only member of the Robin family left in Pleasant Valley. He felt very lonely, all at once. And he wanted to hurry after the others. But he knew what Jasper Jay would say, if he did. Jasper would be sure to tell people that Jolly Robin wasafraidto travel a new way.... Of course, Jolly didn’t want that to be said about him. So he looked as cheerful as he could; and he whistled the merriest tune he knew. Nobody—except his wife, maybe—would have guessed that he wasn’t perfectly happy. Jolly spent a very lonely night. When he went to the roost where the whole Robin family had been sleeping for several weeks, he found it distressingly silent, after the gay chatter that he had grown accustomed to hearing there. And try as he would, he could not keep just a hint of sadness out of his good-night song. But in the morning he felt better. And he welcomed the dawn with a carol that was joyous enough for anybody. For this was the day when Jasper Jay was going to show him the new way to travel. Yes! he, too, would soon be hurrying southwards, where the sun was warm. It was no wonder that he sang, “Cheerily-cheerup, cheerily-cheerup,” right merrily. As soon as he had eaten his breakfast, Jolly went to the place where the beeches grew, to find Jasper Jay. And Jasper was there, just finishing his own breakfast. But he was too busy, he said, to bother with Jolly Robin just then. “You meet me in the orchard this afternoon,” he said, “when the sun’s over the mountain, and I’ll start you on your journey.” So Jolly Robin had to wait all the long day, while Jasper Jay did a hundred silly things, such as mocking Farmer Green’s cat, and teasing a sleepy young owl, and making the woods echo with his hoarse screams. Jasper was late, too, in keeping his appointment in the orchard. Jolly Robin waited for him until almost sunset before Jasper Jay appeared. But Jolly was so glad to see Jasper that he never once thought of being angry with him. “Come along!” said the blue-coated rascal. “Follow me and you’ll soon learn the new way to the South. And if it isn’t a good one I hope I’ll never eat another beechnut.” Jolly Robin laughed. He was sure, then, that he had nothing to worry about. For everybody knew that Jasper Jay was specially fond of beechnuts.
IX JOLLY’S MISTAKE With Jolly Robin following close behind him, Jasper Jay flew directly to the crossroads, almost half-way to the village. Once there, he perched himself upon the sign-post at the four corners. And Jolly Robin seated himself upon one of the boards that were nailed to the post. “Here we are!” said Jasper Jay. “You see how easy it is.” “When will the post begin to move?” Jolly Robin inquired, a bit anxiously. He had waited a whole day to begin his long journey to the South, so it was only natural that he should want to start at once. “What’s that you say?” asked Jasper Jay. And when Jolly repeated his question, Jasper began to scream with laughter. “Well, that’s a good one!” he said at last. “So you thought the post was going to pull itself out of
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the ground and fly away with you, did you?” “Why, yes!” Jolly Robin replied. “Aren’t thesewings?” he asked, looking down at the boards. “They’re already spread,” he observed. It was some minutes before Jasper Jay could answer him, for he was laughing again. But finally he managed to speak. “Those aren’t wings!” he cried. “They’re sign-boards, to tell you which road to take. Of course, you can’t expect to read a sign when you’re sitting on it. Just go over to the fence across the road and you can see the sign that you’re on now.” So Jolly Robin fluttered over to the fence. And from there he could see the sign-board plainly. This is what it looked like: TO SKY POND, 15 MILES “There!” Jasper Jay cried, when Jolly had read the sign aloud. “You see how easy it is. All you need do is to follow this road to which the hand points.” “Then I shall have to fly, after all,” Jolly Robin said. He had expected to have a ride. And naturally he was disappointed. Then he read the sign once more. “Sky Pond!” he exclaimed. “I don’t want to go to Sky Pond. I want to go to the South!” “Well, Sky Pond’s south of Pleasant Valley,” Jasper Jay explained. “It’s right on your way to your winter home. And all you have to do when you reach Sky Pond will be to find another sign, which ought to say something like this: ’To the South, one thousand miles.’ You see how simple it is,” Jasper Jay remarked. “With a sign-board to guide you, you can’t go wrong.” But it seemed to Jolly that the new way of travelling was far more difficult than the old. He said as much to Jasper Jay, too. “I wish––” he added—“I wish I had started yesterday, with the others.” At that Jasper Jay said, “Nonsense!” And he muttered something about dunces, and mollycoddles, and —yes!fraid-cats! ’ Perhaps Jasper hadn’t intended that Jolly Robin should hear those words—and perhaps he had. Anyhow, he was sorry afterward that he had spoken so loud. For the first thing he knew, Jolly Robin flew straight at him with shrill chirps of rage. And Jasper was so surprised—and frightened, too—that he flew off as fast as he could go, following the road that led to Sky Pond, fifteen miles away, with Jolly Robin after him. Jolly chased him for a long time, until at last Jasper Jay swerved to one side and turned toward home. But Jolly Robin followed him no longer. He kept straight on, and on, and on. And he flew so fast and so far before he stopped that he overtook the party that had started a whole day ahead of him. So he travelled to his winter home in the old-fashioned way, after all. And though Jolly Robin laughed when he told his friends about Jasper Jay’s new style of travelling, there was one thing over which he could not smile, even then. You see, “’fraid-cat” was a name he couldn’t abide.
X THE WHITE GIANT It was a raw March day when Jolly Robin returned to Pleasant Valley one spring. There had just been a heavy fall of snow—big, wet flakes which Farmer Green called “sugar-snow,” though it was no sweeter than any other. Johnnie Green liked that kind of snow because it made the best snowballs. And he had had a fine time playing in the orchard near the farmhouse, not long before Jolly Robin appeared there. Now, the orchard was the place where Jolly Robin and his wife had had their nest the summer before. So it was natural that he should want to go there at once and look about a bit. He perched himself on a bare limb, where he sang “Cheerily-cheerup” a few times, in spite of the snow and the cold, whistling wind. He knew that the weather would grow warmer soon; and he was glad to be in Pleasant Valley once more, though he had to confess to himself that he liked the orchard better when the grass was green and the trees were gay with apple-blossoms. “It’s really a beautiful place for a home,” he told himself. “I don’t wonder that Farmer Green likes to live near the orchard. And now I’ll just go over to the house and see if I can’t get a peep at him and his wife and his boy, Johnnie—and the hired-man, too.” So Jolly Robin jumped off the bough and started through the frosty air toward the farmhouse. But all at once he saw a sight that sent him darting into a tree. He hid there for a while and something made him shiver —something besides the cold wind. Yes! Jolly Robin was the least bit frightened. For he had caught a glimpse of a strange man. It was neither Farmer Green nor his hired-man, for this was a giant. He had big, black eyes and a great lump of a nose, which stuck out queerly from his pale moon-face. He was dressed all in white, except for a battered, old,
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black hat, which he wore tipped over one eye. In one hand he held a stick. And it seemed to Jolly Robin that the queer man was just about to hurl it at something. In spite of his uneasiness, Jolly peeped around his tree and watched the stranger. But he did not throw the stick. He stood quite still and seemed to be waiting. And Jolly Robin waited, too, and stared at him. “Maybe there’s a squirrel hiding behind a tree,” he said to himself. “Perhaps this man in white is going to throw the stick as soon as the squirrel shows himself.” But no squirrel appeared. And Jolly Robin was just about to start for the farmhouse again when he saw somebody pop out of the woodshed door and come running toward the orchard. “Here’s Johnnie Green!” Jolly exclaimed. He knew Johnnie at once, because neither Farmer Green nor the hired-man ever went hopping and skipping about like that. Pretty soon Jolly saw Johnnie Green stop and make an armful of snowballs. And then he went straight toward the stranger in white. Though Johnnie began to shout, the man in white did not even turn his head. And then Johnnie Green shied a snowball at him. The snowball sailed through the air and struck the stranger’s battered hat, knocking it off into the snow. And, of course, Jolly Robin couldn’t help laughing. He was more surprised than ever, too, because the moon-faced man did not move even then. Anyone else would have wheeled about and chased Johnnie Green. But this odd gentleman didn’t seem to know that his hat had been knocked off. “That’s queer!” said Jolly Robin to himself. “He must be asleep. But I should think he would wake up.” While Jolly was wondering, Johnnie Green threw another snowball. And when it struck the stranger a very peculiar thing happened. And Jolly Robin did not laugh. He was too frightened to do anything but gasp.
XI WHAT A SNOWBALL DID Jolly Robin was too frightened to laugh when he saw Johnnie Green’s second snowball strike the moon-faced stranger in the orchard. You see, the snowball hit one of the stranger’s arms. And to Jolly’s amazement, the arm at once dropped off and dashed upon the ground, breaking into a dozen pieces. That alone was enough to startle Jolly Robin. But the moon-faced man paid not the slightest attention to the accident. There was something ghostly in the way he stood there, all in white, never moving, never once saying a word. But Johnnie Green did not seem frightened at all. He set up a great shouting and began to let fly his snowballs as fast as he could throw them. They did not all find the mark. But the very last one struck the silent stranger squarely upon his left ear. And to Jolly Robin’s horror, his head toppled off and fell horridly at his feet. Jolly Robin fully expected the man in white to turn and chase Johnnie Green then—or at least to hurl his stick at Johnnie. But nothing of the sort happened. And Jolly did not wait for anything more. He felt that he had seen quite enough. So he flew away to the shelter of the woods, to find somebody to whom he could talk and tell of the strange thing that had happened in the orchard. Over in the woods Jolly was lucky enough to meet Jimmy Rabbit, who was always very friendly toward him. And as soon as he had inquired about Jimmy Rabbit’s health (they had not seen each other since the previous fall, you know), Jolly related how he had seen Johnnie Green knock off the head of the man in the orchard. “And the man never paid the slightest heed to what happened,” said Jolly Robin. “He had a stick in his hand; but he didn’t throw it.” “There’s nothing queer about that,” Jimmy Rabbit remarked. “How could he see where to throw his stick, when he had no head?” But Jolly Robin could not answer that question. And he looked more puzzled than ever. “I don’t understand it,” he said with a shake of his own head. “The whole affair was very odd. I’m afraid I shall not care to live in the orchard this summer, especially if there’s a headless man there! For how can he ever see to leave the orchard?” It was Jimmy Rabbit’s turn to look puzzled, for that was a question that he couldn’t answer. “Maybe there is something queer about this case,” he said. “I’ll go over to the orchard to-morrow and take a look at that headless stranger and see what I think about him. If you’ll meet me here we can go together.” Now, Jolly Robin had almost decided that he would never go near the orchard again. But he felt that if he went with Jimmy Rabbit there ought not to be much danger. So he agreed to Jimmy’s suggestion. “I’ll be here before the morning’s gone,” he promised.
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