A NOISY QUARREL

One odd thing marked Bobby Bobolink's flights. He never flew in a straight course, as old Mr. Crow did, but darted this way and that, crossing and turning and wheeling, until it seemed sometimes--to onlookers--that he was sure to skid into a tree and meet with an accident. And usually Bobby Bobolink would sing with such zest while he was frisking about in the air that it was a marvel to many how he could do two things like that, at the same time, and yet put so much life into each.

Old Mr. Crow claimed that the reason why Bobby Bobolink didn't fly straight was because he had his mind too much on his singing.

"He's nothing but a music-box with wings," Mr. Crow often croaked. "As a flier he couldn't even beat crazy Benjamin Bat."

It was the general opinion that Benjamin Bat could make a longer journey between two points than anybody else in Pleasant Valley. And there were some that disputed Mr. Crow's statement. Jasper Jay even went out of his way to tell Mr. Crow that he had heard of his remark, and that he was mistaken. And they had such a wrangle that they annoyed Mr. Hermit Thrush, way over on the other side of Cedar Swamp. Old Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay were cousins. And everybody knows that there is nothing worse than a cousinly quarrel.

In order to quiet them, the Hermit left his mossy retreat, in a dense thicket, found the two cousins, and asked them, "What are you two quarrelling about now?"

Neither Jasper Jay nor Mr. Crow was noted for his gentlemanly manners.

They both tried to explain at the same time. And it made the Hermit wince to listen to their loud, harsh voices. He was himself a quiet bird; his voice was very sweet.

"There's only one way to settle your dispute," the Hermit said when the two cousins had succeeded in making their trouble clear. "You must arrange a race between this Bobolink person and Benjamin Bat."

"Impossible! You don't know what you're talking about!" Jasper Jay and Mr. Crow both cried at the same time.

The Hermit shuddered. He was not accustomed to such language. It hurt his gentle nature to be spoken to like that. But he managed to stay there while the cousins told him that such a race as he had suggested couldn't be arranged, because Benjamin Bat was always asleep in the daytime, and Bobby Bobolink took his rest at night. The two could never meet.

"Perhaps," said the Hermit, "I could persuade Benjamin Bat to change his habits for once. Maybe he would be willing to stay awake some day, just to oblige me."

"Bobby Bobolink is an obliging fellow," Jasper Jay remarked. "Why don't you ask him to stay awake some night?"

But the Hermit said that that wouldn't suit him at all. "The Bobolink person would be sure to sing his most boisterous song," he said, "and it would wake me up and spoil my night's sleep. Let me speak to Benjamin Bat!" he urged the two cousins.

And in the end they let him have his way.

XXIII

SLEEPY BENJAMIN BAT

LEAVING the two noisy cousins (Jasper Jay and old Mr. Crow) Mr. Hermit Thrush hurried back across Cedar Swamp and went straight to an old hemlock tree, where he knew he would find Benjamin Bat asleep.

Hanging by his heels head downward from a limb, Benjamin Bat did not hear the Hermit speak to him until that soft-spoken gentleman had called to him several times.

But at last Benjamin Bat opened his eyes and stared around in a bewildered fashion. It was broad daylight. And he couldn't see what had disturbed him. He seemed somewhat alarmed too, until the Hermit said, "Don't be frightened! It's only I!"

Well, Benjamin Bat knew right away that n.o.body but the Hermit would speak in just that way. And he was much relieved to know that it wasn't Solomon Owl that had awakened him.

"I'm glad you roused me," he said, "though generally I hate to have my sleep broken. But just now I was having a nightmare. I was dreaming that a monstrous Katydid was chasing me. And if you hadn't called to me I don't know what would have happened.... I think," he added, "I must have dined too heartily--on Katydids--last night."

The Hermit couldn't help looking a bit shocked. He had never approved of Benjamin Bat, who prowled about at night when all respectable people were at home and asleep. And as for over-eating, that was something the Hermit wouldn't think of doing. But if he must choose between Benjamin Bat and Bobby Bobolink for a neighbor, of the two the Hermit preferred Benjamin Bat, because Benjamin was always asleep in the daytime, while at night he never disturbed the Hermit's rest.

"I've come to ask a favor of you," Mr. Hermit Thrush explained. "Perhaps you don't know there's a noisy nuisance hereabouts who calls himself Bobby Bobolink?"

"I do," Benjamin Bat admitted. "But I've never seen him--nor even heard him."

"Then you are a sound sleeper indeed," the Hermit observed. "He's always a-jingling and a-jangling."

"That sounds as if he might be a bell," Benjamin Bat remarked.

"He's a bird," the Hermit explained. And then he proceeded to tell Benjamin Bat how Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay had quarrelled because Mr. Crow said that Bobby Bobolink couldn't beat Benjamin Bat in a race, while Jasper Jay claimed that he could. "What I'd like you to do is to have a race with Bobby Bobolink to-morrow," the Hermit announced.

But Benjamin Bat shook his head.

"It doesn't interest me," he said. "Let Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay quarrel all they want to!"

And before the Hermit had time to coax him to change his mind, Benjamin Bat fell fast asleep. Nor could the Hermit rouse him again.

THE END