Chapter 8 ROBERT ROBIN TELLS THE STORY OF WINTER

It was well towards Fall when Mister and Mrs. Robert Robin's second family were out of the nest, and flying around. The days were getting shorter and the nights seemed very, very long to Robert Robin, who kept the sharpest watch to see the first faint light of dawn in the east. For Robert Robin felt it his duty to waken everybody just as quickly as he was sure that morning was about to break. But as the sun came up in the east a little later each morning, Robert Robin had longer and longer to wait.

"It seems to me that last night was the longest night that we have had this summer!" he said to Mrs. Robin.

"Perhaps to-night will not be as long!" said Mrs. Robin.

"Perhaps not!" said Robert Robin, "but if to-night is any longer than last night, I am going to get the children together and tell them about the Great White Bear and the Little Gray Mouse!"

That afternoon the clouds covered the sky, and towards night a fine misty rain fell, so that the afternoon was dark, and it seemed to Robert Robin that night arrived long before time for it.

"It is getting dark here in the middle of the afternoon!" he said.

The next morning a fog covered all the land, and Robert Robin had good reason to think that the night was far too long.

"Some one is taking our days away from us! By this time to-morrow we will not have any light left, if it keeps on this way!"

But in the afternoon the fog banks drifted away, and the bright sun shone, so Robert Robin felt much better, and he even sang a few songs to cheer up Jim Crow and the other neighbors.

"This is a very fine day!" said Mrs. Robin. And so it was.

The sky was clear and of the deepest blue, the wind was still, and the woods were quiet. Over in the farmer's barnyard a hen was cackling, but in the woods not a sound could be heard. Mister Chipmunk was sitting on his old home stump, but he had nothing to say, and Mister Tom Squirrel had been working so hard lately, that he was too tired to talk.

"To-day would be a good day to tell the children the story of the Great White Bear, and the Little Gray Mouse!" said Mrs. Robin to Robert Robin.

"Well! Get them together, and I will tell them the story!" said Robert Robin. "I may as well do it one time as another, and it doesn't take any longer to do a thing when you think of it than it does to put it off and then have to think of it again!"

So Mrs. Robin called to the children to come and hear Robert Robin tell the story of the Great White Bear and the Little Gray Mouse.

When the children had all gathered in the big basswood tree Robert Robin said, "Come with me!" and led the way to the other side of the woods, near the big stone under which Gerald Fox had his new home, and not far from the old stump fence. Here were many sumach bushes with their fernlike leaves and bright red bobs.

Robert Robin perched on a sumach limb, and straightened his feathers, then he sat up very much as if he were about to sing, and said:

"I have brought you to this side of the woods to tell you the story of the Great White Bear, and the Little Gray Mouse, because it was in this very spot that my father told me the same story, and it was in this same place that his father told the story to him, and no one knows how many, many years the family has gathered here by the big stone, to listen to this same story of the Great White Bear and the Little Gray Mouse. Sheldon! Will you please turn around and look this way?"

"All of you children should pay the closest attention to this story. You should not miss a single word of it, for it will be your duty to tell it to your children, just as I am telling it to you, for this is the story of Winter, and the story of why all robins fly southward every Fall, and why they return to the north in the Spring!"

Then Robert Robin told them the story of the Great White Bear, and the Little Gray Mouse.

Robert Robin's Story

It was many, many seasons ago, before there was any north or south, and when there was only an east and a west, that there lived in the deep, dark woods of the north a King Robin. This King Robin and his mate and their four baby robins were all the robins that there were to be found in all the deep, dark woods.

Every morning when the gray light in the east glowed through the woods, King Robin sang a song, and every evening when the sun was about to sink behind the hills of the west, King Robin sang another song.

King Robin's breast was covered with the softest and whitest down, but one day Mrs. Robin noticed that the tiny tips of the feathers were stained with red.

"You have some cherry juice on your white breast!" said Mrs. King Robin.

"I will wash it off!" said King Robin.

So King Robin plunged into Lake Win-a-ke-tea-cup and washed his white breast, but the stain would not come off, and each day the tiny tips of the soft white feathers of King Robin's breast became a darker red until at last as King Robin sat in the top of his tall tree and sang his evening song, his breast was the color of the red sunset, and each morning as he sang his morning song, the red sunrise was no redder than King Robin's breast. And King Robin grew very proud of his red breast which was stained by the dyes of the glowing sky.

Near the foot of King Robin's tree a Little Gray Mouse had his nest, and as the weather was neither too warm nor too cold, the Little Gray Mouse often sat outside his door and visited with King Robin.

One day they were talking about the Great White Bear. The Great White Bear lived in a cave. The cave was very large, and in one corner of it the Great White Bear had his nest. The Little Gray Mouse said to King Robin: "I am not afraid of the Great White Bear. Are you?"

And King Robin answered, "Yes, I am very much afraid of the Great White Bear."

"I dare go into his cave, and tangle his fur!" said the Little Gray Mouse.

"I would not do that, if I were you!" said King Robin. "If the Great White Bear grew angry, he might do something terrible to you!"

"Pooh!" said the Little Gray Mouse, "who is afraid of a bear? I will stay in his cave all night, and tangle his fur into little hard knots!"

And that night while the Great White Bear was hunting in the woods, the Little Gray Mouse slipped into his cave and hid himself in a corner of the rocks.

But when the Great White Bear came home he smelled the Little Gray Mouse and roared: "Some mouse is hiding in my cave! I smell a mouse!" Then the Great White Bear listened to hear what the mouse had to say, but the Little Gray Mouse was very much frightened, and was trembling all over and did not say a word.

The Great White Bear was very tired, so he thought that he would not catch the Little Gray Mouse until morning, so he crawled into his nest and went to sleep.

When the Great White Bear was sound asleep and snoring, the Little Gray Mouse came from the corner of the rocks and tangled the Great White Bear's tail fur into little hard knots.

The next morning when the Great White Bear awoke he found that the Little Gray Mouse had tangled his tail fur into little hard knots, and the Great White Bear was very angry, and said to the mouse:

"I let you sleep in my warm cave and then you tangled my tail fur into little hard knots!"

The Little Gray Mouse was so frightened that he ran out of the cave and hid in the woods.

The Great White Bear sat down and tried to untangle the little hard knots, but his tail was so short, and the place where his tail fur was tangled was so hard to reach that the Great White Bear could not untangle his tail fur, and he kept getting angrier every minute, and at last he became so furious that he rushed from his cave and began tearing the woods to pieces to find the Little Gray Mouse. But the Little Gray Mouse hid under some leaves, and the Great White Bear could not find him.

The Great White Bear saw King Robin sitting in his tree. "Tell me, King Robin, where I can find the Little Gray Mouse?"

"I do not know where the Little Gray Mouse may be!" said King Robin. "He is hiding in the woods!"

Then the Great White Bear sat down and thought, and thought, and thought, and at last he said: "I am going to find the Little Gray Mouse if I have to freeze the woods! You have always been a good friend of mine, King Robin, and I dislike to put you to any trouble, but if I were you I would take my family and go across the lakes and over the mountains and along the river to the great bay!"

King Robin thought that the Great White Bear was joking, but the Great White Bear stood in the door of his cave and blew the cold air into the woods, and soon the frost from his cold breath whitened the twigs of the trees, and turned the leaves many strange and beautiful colors.

"What a pretty woods you are making!" said King Robin to the Great White Bear, but the Great White Bear only answered:

"If I were you I would take my family and go across the lakes, and over the mountains, and along the river to the great bay!"

And the next night the Great White Bear stood in the door of his cave and blew his cold breath through the woods, and when the morning came the bare branches of the trees were singing in the wind, and the leaves were drifting in the hollows, and King Robin and his family were cold and hungry.

"If I were you, I would take my family and go across the lakes and over the mountains, and along the river to the great bay!" said the Great White Bear to King Robin.

And that night the Great White Bear stood in the door of his cave and blew his cold breath through the woods, and when the morning came the ground was white with snow, and the streams were covered with ice, and the Great White Bear saw King Robin sitting in his tree,-"If I were you, I would take my family and go across the lakes and over the mountains, and along the river to the great bay."

Then King Robin called his family together, and repeated to them what the Great White Bear had told him,-"Across the lakes and over the mountains and along the river to the great bay!" and King Robin made each one repeat it over and over again,-"Across the lakes, and over the mountains, and along the river to the great bay."

And that very day while the snow was still falling and the cold breath of the Great White Bear was blowing through the woods, King Robin led his family southward across the lakes and over the mountains, and along the river to the great bay, and they could feel the cold breath of the Great White Bear on their backs until they reached the great bay.

And the Great White Bear blew his cold breath through the woods until the forest was deep with snow, and the frosty air sparkled at night, and the frozen trees snapped with the cold. "Now I have frozen the Little Gray Mouse!" said the Great White Bear to himself, and he went back to his cave and slept until the woods were warm with the breath of the south wind, and King Robin was back in his tree.

And that is the story of the first Winter, and we should never have had another were it not for the foolish Little Gray Mouse, who was hidden all winter under the snow. For if the Little Gray Mouse would but be content to stay well hidden from the Great White Bear, then we should have no more Winter, but in the Fall the foolish Little Gray Mouse runs through the corn stubble and the Great White Bear sees him. "There goes the Little Gray Mouse who tangled my tail fur!" roars the Great White Bear, and again he blows his cold breath through the woods, and over the country, and all the cold weather we have is on account of that foolish Little Gray Mouse who tangled the tail fur of the Great White Bear!

When Robert Robin had finished speaking, Mrs. Robin said, "Now, children, you must all repeat what the Great White Bear told King Robin,-'Across the lakes and over the mountains, and along the river to the great bay.'" Then all the youngster robins repeated, "Across the lakes and over the mountains, and along the river to the great bay," and while they were talking, the cool wind began to blow from out the north, and Mrs. Robin said, "Feel how cold that wind is getting! The Great White Bear must have seen the Little Gray Mouse!"

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