THE VERY RUDE YOUNG ROBINS
Why this pair of Robins chose to build so near the Sparrows, nobodyknows. It was not at all like Robins to do so, for they are quitecareful how they bring up their children. One would expect them tothink how likely the little Robins would be to grow up rude andquarrelsome.
However, there their nest was, not the length of a beanpole from thoseof two pairs of Sparrows. When the nestlings were hatched, theylistened all day to what the Sparrows were saying and looked at whatthey were doing. They heard and saw many things which Mr. and Mrs.Robin did not like. But there was no helping it then, and all thattheir parents could do was to try to bring them up to be good littlebirds, and do as they had been told, and not as they had seen naughtychildren do.
It did make a difference in the behavior of the children, however, andafter they left the nest this showed very plainly. When they were oldenough to go outside the yard in which they had been hatched, theywent to the place next door. There were many fowls on this place, andseveral Hens in coops with young Chickens around them. The father andmother left the young Robins in safe places while they went to huntWorms in the newly hoed garden. Two children, a brother and a sister,were half hidden under the drooping branches of a large gooseberrybush.
They had been there for some time, when the sister said, "Just seewhat lots of good, clean food that Hen and her Chickens have. Don'tyou wish you had some of it?"
"Um-hum!" answered the brother. "What a pretty yellow it is. I justknow it is good!"
Neither of them spoke again for a long time. Indeed, the brother hadbegun to settle his head down on his shoulders and slide the thin lidsover his eyes, when his sister said, "If you were a Sparrow, you'd getsome."
"Well, I'm not a Sparrow," he answered, "and so I shall have to gowithout."
He was almost cross to his dear little sister, but perhaps one couldpartly excuse him. He saw that there was much more than the Chickenscould eat, and that it would lie there spread out on the board untilthey had spoiled it all by trampling it with muddy feet. Now it waslovely, clean, sweet corn-meal mush. Besides, he was becomingdreadfully hungry. It was fully ten minutes, you know, since he hadbeen fed anything.
The little sister kept still for a while. Her mother had taught herthat it does not always pay to talk too much. At last she asked, "Doyou suppose those tiny bits of Chickens know the difference between aSparrow and a Robin?"
Her brother opened his eyes very wide, and stretched his head up sothat one could see the black and white feathers under his bill. He wasalmost full-grown. "I've a good mind to try to fool them," he said."You see, the Hen can't reach the board where the food is."
"I dare you to!" cried his sister, who really should have been hisbrother, she was so brave.
"All right," he answered. "Only you come too."
"I will," she said. "But let's wait until Father and Mother arelooking the other way."
Twice they started out and came back because their parents werelooking. At last they made a dash and were by the board.
"Stand aside!" said the brother, talking as nearly like a Sparrow ashe could. "Let us have some of this!"
"Who are you?" asked the Chickens, while the old Hencluck-cluck-clucked and strutted to and fro in the coop. Every littlewhile she stuck her head out as far as she could reach, and her neckfeathers spread around in a funny, fat way against the slats of hercoop.
"Go away!" she scolded. "Go right away! That is not your mush! You arenot my Chickens! Go right home to your mother! Cr-r-r-r-r!" She saidthis last, you know, because she was getting so angry that she couldsay nothing else.
The fowls behind the netting of the poultry-yard all came to see whatwas going on, and chattered about it in their cackling way. "Sendthem off!" they cried. "Send them off! The idea of their trying totake food from the Chickens!" The Cocks looked particularly big andfierce. Still, there is not much fun in looking big and fierce behinda wire netting, when the people whom you want to scare are in front ofit.
The young Robins were dreadfully frightened, but having feathers allover their face, it did not really show. Neither one was willing to bethe first to start away, and they didn't like to speak about it toeach other for fear of being overheard. You know, if you can keepother people from finding out that you are scared, you may end byscaring them, and that was exactly what the Robins meant to do.
"Get out of our way!" said they. "Don't brush against us so again! Ifyou were not young, we wouldn't have stood it this time. When you havefeathers you may know better."
Then the little Chickens were very badly scared indeed. They backedaway as quickly as they could, and crawled in beside their mother. Shetold them to go back; that the Robins couldn't hurt them, and that shewas ashamed to have them act so Chicken-hearted.
"Let us get under your wings!" they said. "Please let us get underyour wings!" And they followed, peeping, after her, as she marched toand fro in the narrow coop. Sometimes they got so near her feet thatshe almost knocked them over, and at last they quite gave up trying tocuddle down under her, and got together in little groups in the backpart of the coop.
"Had enough?" asked the brother at last.
"Yes, indeed," answered his sister. "I can't swallow any more now.I'm just making believe because you are not through."
"All right!" said he.
He turned to the Chickens. "Now you may come," he said. "But anothertime get out of our way more quickly." Then they turned their backsand hopped off. They didn't want to try flying, because that wouldshow how very young they were.
"We did it," exclaimed those two naughty children. "Did you ever seesuch little Geese as those Chickens? But oh, what if our parentsshould find it out?"
"See here," chirped their mother, who could not speak very plainlybecause she had two large Earthworms hanging in wriggling loops fromher bill, "Here is a lovely lunch for you."
"Give it to Brother," said the little sister. "He always wants morethan I."
"Oh, no. Give it to Sister," said he. "I don't mean to be selfish."
"You shall both have some," said their mother, tucking a large Wormdown each unwilling throat. "Little birds will never be big birdsunless they eat plenty of the right kind of food. I will bring youmore."
When she was gone they looked at each other. "I just can _not_ eatanother billful," said the sister.
"And I won't!" said the brother. After a while he added, "Is there anyof that mush sticking to my bill?"
"No," said the sister. "Is there any on mine?"
They did not feel at all sure that their mother would have let themeat so much mush if she had been asked. They wondered if it would makethem sick. They began to think about the stomach-ache, and felt surethat they had one--that is to say, two--one apiece, you know.
Over in the garden, Mrs. Robin said to her husband, "Do you know whatthose children have done? It was a very ill-bred, Sparrow-like trick.They scared the little Chickens away, and ate all they could of theirmush. I am dreadfully ashamed of them, but I shall pretend I did notsee it."
"Make them eat plenty of Worms," suggested Mr. Robin.
"Just what I am going to do," answered his wife. "It won't really hurtthem to overeat for once in their lives, and it will punish them verywell."
That was why Mr. and Mrs. Robin worked so especially hard all morning,and made so many trips in under the gooseberry bush. The two youngRobins who were there kept insisting that they didn't need any more,and that they really couldn't eat another Worm. After they said this,Mrs. Robin always looked sharply at them and asked, "What have youchildren been doing? Young birds should always want all the Wormstheir parents can bring them."
The little Robins were not brave enough to tell what they had done.You know it often takes more courage to confess a fault than it doesto scare people. So whenever their mother said this they agreed to eatone more Worm apiece, and choked and gulped it down. It was a dreadfulmorning for them.
Inside the Chicken-coop the old Hen was trying to settle dow
n again,and the Chickens were talking it over.
"Wasn't it dreadful?" asked one. "I didn't know that Robins were sofierce."
"Mother said that we shouldn't be afraid of them," cried another, "butI guess she'd be afraid her own self if she wasn't in that coop. She'dbe 'fraider if she was little, too."
"I'm glad they didn't eat it all," said a third Chicken. "When do yousuppose they'll come again?"
"Every day," said another, a Chicken who always expected bad things tohappen. "Perhaps they will come two times a day! Maybe they'll evencome three!"
But they didn't. They didn't come at all. And they never wantedcorn-meal mush again.