When Jolly Robin awoke a little before dawn, after his night in the
woods, he did not know at first where he was.
Now, it happened that just as he was awaking in the cedar tree, Willie
Whip-poor-will was going to sleep on the ground right beneath him. So
when Jolly at last looked down and spied his friend, he remembered
what had happened.
"My goodness!" he said with a nervous laugh. "I fell asleep here last
night! And I wonder what my wife will say when I get home." He would
have liked to try to rouse Willie Whip-poor-will and speak to him
about learning the new song. But he was so uneasy on account of what
his wife might say about his having stayed away from home all night
that he flew away as fast as he could go.
It was exactly as he had feared. When he reached his house in the
orchard his wife greeted him quite coldly. In fact, she hardly spoke
to him at all. And when Jolly told her, with a good many chuckles,
what a joke he had played on himself--falling asleep as he had, while
making a call upon Willie Whip-poor-will--she did not even smile.
"I should think you would be ashamed of yourself," she told him.
"Willie Whip-poor-will is a good-for-nothing rascal. Everybody talks
about the way he prowls through the woods all night and seldom goes to
bed before morning. And his wife is no better than he is. They're too
shiftless even to build themselves a nest. Mrs. Whip-poor-will leaves
her eggs on the ground. And that's enough to know about _her_.
"If you like to spend your time with such trash you'd better go over
to the woods and live," Mrs. Robin said. And then she turned her back
on her husband and set to work to clean her nest.
Jolly and his wife happened to have five small children at the time.
They were so young that they had never left home, not having learned
to fly. And they were all clamoring for their breakfast.
Thinking to please his wife, Jolly Robin went off and began gathering
angleworms for the youngsters. But when he brought them home his wife
told him that he had better eat them himself.
"I am quite able to feed my own children without any help from a
person who doesn't come home until after daybreak," she said.
And she acted like that for two whole days. Naturally, Jolly Robin
felt very uncomfortable during that time. And ever afterward he took
good care to have nothing to do with Willie Whip-poor-will.
He did wish, however, that Willie would learn a new song. For Jolly
disliked more than ever to hear that "_Whip-poor-will!
Whip-poor-will!_" repeated over and over again. It always reminded him
of the time he made his wife angry by spending the night away from
home.