<h2>XXIII</h2>
<h3>A COLD GREETING</h3></div>
<p>When Jolly Robin awoke a little before
dawn, after his night in the woods, he did
not know at first where he was.</p>
<p>Now, it happened that just as he was
awaking in the cedar tree, Willie Whip-poor-will
was going to sleep on the ground
right beneath him. So when Jolly at last
looked down and spied his friend, he remembered
what had happened.</p>
<p>“My goodness!” he said with a nervous
laugh. “I fell asleep here last night! And
I wonder what my wife will say when I
get home.” He would have liked to try
to rouse Willie Whip-poor-will and speak
<span class='pagenum pncolor'><SPAN name='page_117' name='page_117'></SPAN>117</span>
to him about learning the new song. But
he was so uneasy on account of what his
wife might say about his having stayed
away from home all night that he flew
away as fast as he could go.</p>
<p>It was exactly as he had feared. When
he reached his house in the orchard his
wife greeted him quite coldly. In fact,
she hardly spoke to him at all. And when
Jolly told her, with a good many chuckles,
what a joke he had played on himself—falling
asleep as he had, while making a
call upon Willie Whip-poor-will—she did
not even smile.</p>
<p>“I should think you would be ashamed
of yourself,” she told him. “Willie
Whip-poor-will is a good-for-nothing rascal.
Everybody talks about the way he
prowls through the woods all night and
seldom goes to bed before morning. And
his wife is no better than he is. They’re
<span class='pagenum pncolor'><SPAN name='page_118' name='page_118'></SPAN>118</span>
too shiftless even to build themselves a
nest. Mrs. Whip-poor-will leaves her eggs
on the ground. And that’s enough to know
about <i>her</i>.</p>
<p>“If you like to spend your time with
such trash you’d better go over to the
woods and live,” Mrs. Robin said. And
then she turned her back on her husband
and set to work to clean her nest.</p>
<p>Jolly and his wife happened to have five
small children at the time. They were so
young that they had never left home, not
having learned to fly. And they were all
clamoring for their breakfast.</p>
<p>Thinking to please his wife, Jolly Robin
went off and began gathering angleworms
for the youngsters. But when he brought
them home his wife told him that he had
better eat them himself.</p>
<p>“I am quite able to feed my own children
without any help from a person who
<span class='pagenum pncolor'><SPAN name='page_119' name='page_119'></SPAN>119</span>
doesn’t come home until after daybreak,”
she said.</p>
<p>And she acted like that for two whole
days. Naturally, Jolly Robin felt very
uncomfortable during that time. And
ever afterward he took good care to have
nothing to do with Willie Whip-poor-will.</p>
<p>He did wish, however, that Willie would
learn a new song. For Jolly disliked more
than ever to hear that “<i>Whip-poor-will!
Whip-poor-will!</i>” repeated over and over
again. It always reminded him of the time
he made his wife angry by spending the
night away from home.</p>
<p style='text-align:center;margin-top:1.5em;'>THE END</p>
<!-- generated by ppg.rb version: 0.19 -->
<!-- timestamp: Mon Mar 09 07:52:32 -0600 2009 -->
<div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />