II
AT THE OLD STONE WALL
Little Mr. Chippy suddenly set up a great twitter.
Anybody could see that he was frightened. And one of Jolly
Robin's sons,
perched in an apple tree near the stone wall
where Mr. Chippy lived in a wild grapevine, wondered what
could be the matter.
Presently, as he looked beneath him, he saw a long,
slim shape dart from a chink of the old wall, and as quickly
disappear.
"Huh!" said young Master Robin.
"Foolish people who
build their homes on walls must expect snakes for visitors."
And feeling quite wise and grown up, he turned his back on
Mr. Chippy,
as if it really made no difference to him if Mr.
Chippy did have a dangerous caller.
Meanwhile others of the bird neighbors began to echo
Mr. Chippy's warning notes.
And young Master Robin thought
everybody was silly to make such a fuss over the misfortunes
of a humble person like Mr. Chippy.
"If they don't look out they'll scare all the
angleworms back into their holes," he grumbled---a remark
which shows that he knew little about the ways of the world.
And when Rusty Wren swerved near him and called to him to
look out for Mr. Chippy's visitor
---that he was "a bad
one"---young Master Robin actually puffed himself up with
rage.
"He seems to think I'm in danger of falling out of
this tree," he sneered aloud. "He doesn't know that I can
handle myself in a tree as well as he can."
As he spoke,
Master Robin all but tumbled off his perch.
But he caught
himself just in time, then looked around hastily to see if
anybody had noticed his awkwardness.
All this time poor Mr. Chippy's cries continued.
There was really no reason for his alarm. For his wife was
away from home, with all their children.
But Mr. Chippy kept
flying back and forth in a great flutter. He too called to
young Master Robin that he'd better go home.
Still that knowing youngster paid no heed to his
elder's advice.
"If snakes climb trees I've never seen them do it,"
he scoffed.
"Hi, there! Haven't you seen------" Mr. Chippy
started to say.
But before he could finish his question
Master Robin interrupted him rudely.
"Certainly I saw him," he cried. "I saw him come out
of the wall and go in again."
"He'll get you if you don't go away!" Mr. Chippy
shrieked.
"Let him try!" Master Robin scoffed. He was sorry
that Mr. Chippy did not hear him.
person had already hurried off to warn somebody else.
It was no time at all before Rusty Wren's wife gave a
piercing scream.
"That fat Robin boy---he'll be caught!" she wailed.
Now, it made Master Robin very angry to be spoken of
in such a way as that.
"Fat!" he burst out in a loud tone as he stared in
Mrs. Wren's direction. "Who's fat?"
"You are!" said a strange, grumpy voice right behind
him---or so it seemed to young Master Robin.
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