WHEN Mrs. Bobolink saw Johnnie Green, carrying a tin pail, come
walking through the meadow straight towards her house she was
terribly frightened. She was not afraid for herself. Her only
thought was of her children, who were still too young to leave
the nest.
Somehow Mrs. Bobolink felt sure that Johnnie was searching for her nest,
for he had his head bent toward the ground, as if he were looking for
something. And that bright tin pail! Mrs. Bobolink viewed it with alarm.
She just knew that it was meant to carry off her children!
Of course Johnnie Green was only looking for strawberries. But Mrs.
Bobolink didn't know that. All at once she remembered how she had
objected to having her nest in the very center of the meadow, although
her husband had told her that he thought it the safest place. And it
came back to her, too, how she had said that Johnnie Green would never
come into the lower end of the meadow, near Cedar Swamp, for fear of
getting his feet wet.
Poor Mrs. Bobolink choked as she thought how foolish she had been. But
it was too late to move now. And she didn't see what she was going to
do. She wished Bobby was at home, though she had no idea how he could
have headed off Johnnie Green who was fast drawing nearer.
As soon as she could speak she called "Chenk, chenk!" at the top of her
voice. She could think of nothing else to say.
Luckily Bobby was not far away. And hearing his wife's alarm call, he
turned to hurry home. But seeing Johnnie Green, he swerved sharply aside
and dropped down upon a tuft of grass not too near the nest.
And then Bobby Bobolink made a great fuss. He cried "Chink, chink!" over
and over again, now fluttering into the grass, now bobbing into sight
again. Johnnie Green couldn't help noticing him.
"There must be a nest there!" he exclaimed under his breath. And he ran
quickly to the spot where Bobby was acting so queerly. But when he got
there Johnnie found nothing.
Bobby Bobolink had fooled him. He never knew how near he came to
stumbling upon the nest, before Bobby played that trick on him.
Mrs. Bobolink was greatly relieved when Johnnie Green left her end of
the meadow. And she told her husband that she had never supposed Johnnie
would come where it was so damp, for fear of getting his feet wet.
Bobby Bobolink did not tell her that he had known all the time that a
little water never troubled Johnnie Green--so long as he didn't have to
wash his face in it.