THE first few days of early May had passed and with them had
flitted--somewhere--most of the jolly company in which Bobby Bobolink
had journeyed from the South. But a few of those merrymakers had
stayed--as Bobby did--in Farmer Green's meadow. They had made up their
minds to spend the summer in Pleasant Valley.
Even old Mr. Crow, who was no lover of music, had to admit that he had
never heard such bursts of song during all the summers he had spent in
the neighborhood. It seemed as if Bobby Bobolink and his companions
were trying their best to out-sing one another, though nobody knew why
they should do that.
But at last somebody discovered the reason. That rowdy of the woods,
Jasper Jay, spied upon the harum-scarum singers one day, when they were
all but bursting themselves in a frenzy of song. And he saw that they
were giving what Jasper called "a serenade."
They were singing not for themselves but for a dull, yellowish-brown
lady of their own sort, who had not arrived from the South until Bobby
and his friends had been frolicking about the meadow almost a week.
She seemed a shy creature--this young person--preferring to stay on the
ground during the serenade. But Bobby Bobolink and his companions were
bold as brass. Often they alighted on the ground near her, as if they
thought she could not hear their songs well enough when they skimmed
through the air over the grassy meadow. Amid such a jingling and
tinkling of notes it was no wonder that the little lady acted somewhat
confused.
Jasper Jay, who was almost as great a gossip as Mr. Crow, told everybody
in the neighborhood that he had never heard such a hubbub. But then,
like his cousin Mr. Crow, Jasper was not a lover of music. And it was
true that sprightly Bobby Bobolink and his dashing friends made no
attempt to sing together. To be sure, they sang all at the same time;
but each one of them sang his own song in his own way, just as if his
was the only one that was being sung.
They never tired of entertaining the lady. And whether the
yellowish-brown person decided that Bobby Bobolink sang louder than the
others, or whether she thought his singing was sweeter or gayer than
that of his friends, nobody ever found out. Perhaps he managed to say
something--in his song--that especially pleased her. Anyhow, it was only
a short time before Bobby Bobolink was making such remarks as these to
everybody in the meadow:
"My wife says I have the quickest eye for a caterpillar that she ever
saw!" and "Mrs. Bobolink and I expect to begin to build a new house at
once!"
Now, you might think that Bobby's friends, after all their singing for
the little lady, would have felt quite glum. But they were not in the
least downcast. Of course, Bobby Bobolink would not let them serenade
his wife. Indeed he promptly chased them away as soon as he knew that he
had won her.
But they were so light-hearted that they started right away to sing for
another lady in another part of the meadow.
She was as like the first one as two peas in a pod. And Jasper Jay
chuckled when he found out what was going on.
He said he didn't believe they knew the difference.
V