````Thrice blessed be the girl or boy
````Who fills another's heart with joy.=
|ONE day just by chance Bob White flew up in a tree where he could look
down in Fanner Brown's henyard, and there he discovered the lost little
Bob and talked with him. Then Bob White flew back to the Green Meadows
where little Mrs. Bob was anxiously waiting for him, and his heart was
light. Mrs. Bob was watching for him and flew to meet him.
“It's all right!” cried Bob. “I found him over in Fanner Brown's
henyard.” Of course “him” meant the young Bob White who had been given
up as killed. “What?” exclaimed Mrs. Bob.
“What is a henyard, and what is he doing there?”
“A henyard is a place where Farmer Brown keeps a lot of big foolish
birds,” explained Bob, “and little Bob is a prisoner there.”
“How dreadful!” cried Mrs. Bob. “If he's a prisoner, how can you say
it's all right?”
“Because it is,” replied Bob. “He's perfectly safe there, and he
wouldn't be if he were here with us. You see, he can't fly. One of his
wings was broken by the shot from that terrible gun. Farmer Brown's boy
found him and has been very kind to him. He fixed that wing so that I
believe it is going to get quite as well as ever. You know quite as
well as I do how much chance little Bob would have had over here with a
broken wing. Reddy Fox or Redtail the Hawk or some one else would have
been sure to get him sooner or later. But up there they can't, because
he is in a wire pen. He can't get out, but neither can they get in, and
so he is safe. He and Farmer Brown's boy are great friends. With my own
eyes I saw him feed from the hand of Farmer Brown's boy. Do you know, I
believe that boy is really and truly our friend and can be trusted.”
“That is what Peter Rabbit is always saying, but after all we've
suffered from them, I can't quite make up my mind that any of those
great two-legged creatures are to be trusted,” said little Mrs. Bob.
“I've got to see for myself.”
“You shall,” declared Bob. “Tomorrow morning you shall go up there and
I'll stay here to look after the rest of the youngsters. I am afraid if
we left them alone some of them would be careless or foolish enough to
go where the hunters with terrible guns would find them.”
So the next morning Mrs. Bob went up to visit young Bob, and she saw all
that Bob had seen the day before. She returned with a great load off
her mind. She knew that Bob was right, and that Fanner Brown's boy had
proved himself a true friend from whom there was nothing to fear. The
next day Bob and Mrs. Bob took the whole family up there, for Fanner
Brown's boy had scattered food for them just outside the henyard where
the biddies could not get it, and Bob was smart enough to know that
no hunter would dare look for them so close to Farmer Brown's house.
Morning after morning they went up there to get their breakfast, and
they didn't even fly when Farmer Brown's boy and Farmer Brown himself
came out to watch them eat.
Then one morning a wonderful thing happened. Farmer Brown's boy took
young Bob out of his pen in the hen-yard. Young Bob looked quite himself
by this time, for the strips of cloth which had bound his broken wing
in place had been taken off, and his wing was as good as ever. Fanner
Brown's boy took him outside the henyard and gently put him down on the
ground.
“There you are! Now go and join your family and in the future keep out
of the way of hunters,” said he, and laughed to see young Bob scamper
over to join his brothers and sisters.
Such a fuss as they made over him! Suddenly Bob White flew up to the
top of a post, threw back his head and whistled with all his might, “Bob
White! Bob White! Bob White!” You see, he just had to tell all the Great
World of the joy in his heart, although this was not the time of year in
which he usually whistles.
And this is how it happened that Bob White and his whole family came
regularly to Farmer Brown's for their breakfasts, and no hunter ever
had another chance to carry fright and suffering and sorrow into their
midst.
So this is all about Bob White and his family because Ol' Mistah Buzzard
has come all the way up from Ol' Virginny for me to tell you about him
and his adventures. I've promised to do it in the very next book.