The next day was Monday, the first of July. Father Thrift turned the
leaf of his homemade calendar. Then he and Shaggy Bear went out into
the garden to work.
All of a sudden they heard such a commotion! They looked up and saw a
great flock of birds flying toward them.
There were robins and bluebirds and kingbirds and bobolinks and brown
thrashers and catbirds and meadow larks and woodpeckers and wrens, and
all the other birds of the forest.
Did they come to sing for Father Thrift because it was the first of
July?
No, not one of the birds was singing now. They were chattering and
crying, but you could not make out what the fuss was all about.
To Father Thrift and Shaggy it sounded something like this:
Charr, charr, caw, caw, churr, churr, chee, chee,
Peenk, peenk, quit, quit, chuck, chuck, whee, whee,
Tzip, tzip, thsee, thsee, conk-err-ee, whack,
Jay, jay, mew, mew, whip, chip, crack, tchack,
R-r-r-r-r-r-r!!
"R-r-r-r-r-r-r" meant, "We're angry. Next time we will fight them."