Read Ebook: Exciting Adventures of Mister Robert Robin by Oldfield Reuben Bertram

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Ebook has 506 lines and 21361 words, and 11 pages

or Partridge played a tune on his drum, and Mister Robert Robin mounted the very highest twig of his big basswood tree and sang a song for Mrs. Robin:

"Cheer up! Cheer up! Cheer up! Cheer, up! Be cheery! Be cheery! Cheer up! Cheer up!"

MISTER ROBERT ROBIN SEES THE FARMER'S NEW MALTESE CAT

One fine afternoon Mister Robert Robin was down under the pasture-field brush trying to find some brown bugs. He had caught one, but two more got away from him, so he was beginning to feel discouraged, when he happened to look up and see Mrs. Henrietta Partridge sitting on her nest under a beechwood bush.

Up to that time Mister Robert Robin had not known that Mrs. Partridge had a nest, although he had suspected it.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Partridge!" said Robert Robin, as he made a very polite bow. "This is wonderful weather we are having!"

"Nonsense, Mrs. Partridge!" said Robert Robin, "I have always noticed that the more fine weather we have, the more we get! I claim that we are going to have the nicest summer this year that we have had since the year we had so many cherries!"

"I do hope that you are right, Mister Robin!" said Mrs. Partridge. "Major Partridge is always joking me because I am expecting bad weather, but I have noticed that no matter how many nice days we have, it always turns around and rains, before it gets through!"

"Do you enjoy rainy weather, Mister Robin?" asked Mrs. Partridge.

"I like wet weather, when it is not too wet; I like dry weather when it is not too dry; I like warm weather when it is not too warm, and I like cool weather when it is not too cool! And I have a song for each kind of weather!" said Robert Robin as he again started hunting for brown bugs.

"You seem to be looking for something, Mister Robin!" said Mrs. Partridge.

"Yes, I am hunting brown bugs!" said Robert Robin; "two of them hid under the leaves, but there must be a few more left!"

"Stir the leaves up with your feet!" said Mrs. Partridge, "then if there are any brown bugs under them you will be able to catch them!"

"I cannot make my feet go backwards!" said Robert Robin. "My feet insist on hopping! I think that I must be clumsy with my legs, for even the farmer's big rooster can scratch the ground and dig up wonderful things. I saw him kick a worm clear through the fence!"

"He must be very strong!" said Mrs. Partridge.

"Strong! I should say he is strong! Even Percy Hawk is afraid of him, and never goes near the little chickens when that big rooster is watching him!"

"Major Partridge is very athletic!" said Mrs. Partridge. "He exercises a great deal on his drum!"

"Here comes the Major now!" said Robert Robin.

"How do you do, sir!" said Major Partridge to Robert Robin.

"Good afternoon, Major!" said Robert Robin. "I have just been telling Mrs. Partridge about how strong the farmer's big rooster was, and how he could dig with his feet!"

"I do not remember ever having seen you dig with your feet, Major Partridge, but the farmer's big rooster kicked a worm clear through the fence!"

"Kicking a little worm is nothing! Once I kicked a stone from hither to yonder, and Billy Rabbit asked me to help him dig his next hole!" declared Major Partridge, as he stood very straight and put his chest out. "If you have a few moments to spare I will dig these leaves up for you!"

Then Major Partridge began kicking the leaves in all directions, and Robert Robin began catching the brown bugs, and Mrs. Partridge came from her nest, and found the ripe partridge berries which Major Partridge was uncovering, but when the Major happened to see the ripe red partridge berries he forgot all about kicking the leaves, and he and Mrs. Partridge ate all the berries and never invited Robert Robin to have a berry.

"You seem to like partridge berries!" said Robert Robin.

"Yes, we are very fond of them!" said Mrs. Partridge. "They are my favorite fruit!"

"I seldom eat them!" said Robert Robin. "My favorite fruit is a ripe red cherry!"

"I thought that cherries were purple when they were ripe," said Mrs. Partridge.

"Some kinds of wild cherries are purple when they are ripe, but the cherries which grow on the trees near the farmer's house are red when they are ripe, and they are ever so much better than wild cherries!" said Robert Robin.

"I would like some of the farmer's ripe red cherries, but I would never dare go so near the farmer's house. He would be almost sure to see me and shoot me with his gun!" said Mrs. Partridge, as she got back on her nest and snuggled her eggs.

Major Partridge heard Bob White calling to him, so he strutted over to see what Bob White wanted, but Robert Robin felt like visiting a little more, so he said to Mrs. Partridge:

"You were speaking about being afraid that the farmer would shoot you; he never shoots at me, but one time he threw a stone at me when I was picking some of the cherries to bring home to my babies. He seemed very angry about something."

"Perhaps he did not like you to be picking his cherries," said Mrs. Partridge.

"Men are great pests!" said Mrs. Partridge. "Old Mister Crow was telling me that he could remember when the country was all woods, and there were more of us partridges than there were men. Those must have been the 'good old days!'"

"That farmer seems to think that he owns all the trees, and all the fences, and all the fields!" said Robert Robin. "The rude manner he uses towards his horses and the way he slaps them with the straps, and the way he shouts at them is very disgusting to me! If I were a great big horse, I would not let a little man, only one fifth of my size, boss me around like that farmer does his big horses!"

"Neither would I!" exclaimed Mrs. Partridge. "But I shall never let that farmer catch me if I can help it!"

"Then he has cats around his house and barn!" said Robert Robin. "Cats are very bad animals!"

"Yes, they are!" agreed Mrs. Partridge. "And I wish that dog of his would stay out of our woods! He is always prowling around, smelling of things, and I expect that he will find my nest, and mercy knows what I would ever do then!"

"Gerald Fox bit him once!" said Robert Robin. "But why not make your nest up in a tree, Mrs. Partridge? It is much safer from dogs!"

"My mother built hers on the ground, and what was good enough for my mother ought to be good enough for me!" said Mrs. Partridge, and just then Robert Robin heard his wife calling to him to come and keep watch of the nest while she went out for lunch.

"Where have you been all day?" asked Mrs. Robin. "I have been calling, and calling, and I was beginning to get worried for fear something dreadful had happened to you! You must have found many good things to eat, for your crop sticks out like a chicken's!"

"I am very sorry if I kept you waiting, my dear!" said Robert Robin. "But Major Partridge kicked up the leaves so that I caught a whole cropful of brown bugs. He must have made so much noise that I did not hear you calling to me!"

"You are usually so prompt in coming when I call, that I was sure you would have a good reason!" said Mrs. Robin. "Now I will go over and get my lunch, but I do not care for brown bugs to-day. I will get me some black bugs, there must be plenty of them over in Black-bug Swamp."

So Mrs. Robin went to Black-bug Swamp and found plenty of black bugs, and on the way back she stopped near Mrs. Partridge's nest to get one or two brown bugs for dessert.

"Good afternoon, Mrs. Robin!" said Mrs. Partridge, and Mrs. Robin jumped and looked all around, but she did not see Mrs. Partridge.

"Your husband and I have just had a nice long visit!" continued Mrs. Partridge, and Mrs. Robin kept jumping around and trying to see who was talking to her. But Mrs. Partridge's feathers were so nearly the color of the leaves, that Mrs. Robin might not have seen her at all, had she not moved a little.

"Why! Good afternoon, Mrs. Partridge! I could hear you talking to me but I could not see you! So Mister Robin has been visiting with you! He surely does like to visit!"

"So does Major Partridge! He will talk all day if he can coax some one to listen to him. He is over there now visiting with Bob White. What those two can find to talk so much about is a mystery to me! It is real funny to listen to them! They both brag about the big things they have done or are going to do.

"That little puff ball of a Bob White was saying the other day that he was almost ready to whip Mister Horned Owl. You would think to hear him talk that he was larger than Mister Owl!"

"Mister Robin is very apt to boast about himself, when he is talking to strangers!" said Mrs. Robin.

"Major Partridge is the funniest thing!" said Mrs. Partridge. "He is desperately afraid of snakes, but when Bob White was telling about his going to whip Mister Owl, Major Partridge threw his chest out, and swelled himself up, and said in a very gruff voice, 'To-morrow, I think, if the weather is good, I shall drive all of the snakes out of our woods!'"

"They are so hideous!" said Mrs. Partridge.

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