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And I will suggest that we start for the stone wall right now, for there's no time like the present, you know." Even Buster Bumblebee approved of Mr. Chippy's retort. And with that everybody started pell-mell for the stone wall. DADDY LONGLEGS was taken entirely by surprise. It was rather early in the morning.
Meanwhile others of the bird neighbors began to echo Mr. Chippy's warning notes. And young Master Robin thought everybody was silly to make such a fuss over the misfortunes of a humble person like Mr. Chippy. "If they don't look out they'll scare all the angleworms back into their holes," he grumbled a remark which shows that he knew little about the ways of the world.
Overhead an oriole sang in the weeping elm, now and then breaking his song to scold like an overgrown wren. Song-sparrows and catbirds sang in the shrubbery; one robin had built its nest over the front and one over the back door, and there was a chippy's nest in the wistaria vine by the stoop.
"So far, they've never refused anything that was offered them. But if Mrs. Wren tried to eat that beetle herself, I fear there'll be trouble." And there was. Rusty knew it a few minutes later, when little Mr. Chippy's son, Chippy, Jr., came flitting up and peeped in his childish voice, "Please, sir, Mrs. Wren wants you at once." There was nothing to do except to go home. And Rusty went.
And when Rusty Wren swerved near him and called to him to look out for Mr. Chippy's visitor that he was "a bad one" young Master Robin actually puffed himself up with rage. "He seems to think I'm in danger of falling out of this tree," he sneered aloud. "He doesn't know that I can handle myself in a tree as well as he can." As he spoke, Master Robin all but tumbled off his perch.
"And if the oats get wet Farmer Green can't blame me." He went back to the stone wall then. And seeing Mr. Chippy perched on the wild grapevine, Daddy told him what had happened. "Farmer Green must be deaf at times, the same as you are," little Mr. Chippy observed. "If I were you I'd write him a letter." Daddy Longlegs pretended not to hear Mr. Chippy's suggestion.
Everywhere as I went along, from every stake, every stout weed and topping bunch of grass, trilled the seaside sparrows a weak, husky, monotonous song, of five or six notes, a little like the chippy's, more tuneful, perhaps, but not so strong. They are dark, dusky birds, of a grayish olive-green hue, with a conspicuous yellow line before the eye, and yellow upon the shoulder.
But he caught himself just in time, then looked around hastily to see if anybody had noticed his awkwardness. All this time poor Mr. Chippy's cries continued. There was really no reason for his alarm. For his wife was away from home, with all their children. But Mr. Chippy kept flying back and forth in a great flutter. He too called to young Master Robin that he'd better go home.
I couldn't find any picture that matched, but then I began to read about Sparrows, and when I came to Chippy Sparrow I was sure it matched; for the book said it was a clever little fellow with a jaunty red cap that came with his mate to the very door and that children make the Chippy's acquaintance and hunt in the vines on the piazza or in a bush for its nest and that the nest is very neat and made of horsehair " Here Dodo stopped to get her breath.
To Mr. Chippy's surprise a murmur of dissent greeted his proposal. "What's the matter?" asked Mr. Chippy! "I thought you liked my idea." "So we do!" Rusty Wren replied. "But we think it would be better if we all called on Daddy and explained to him about the change." "Very well!" little Mr. Chippy answered. "The more the merrier! I'll be the spokesman.
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