The Robins Open A Spring Shop

: Daddy's Bedtime Bird Stories

"The robins, having left their warm winter home, had settled near a

great, big, lovely park," said daddy. "Now, one of the robins happened

to be a very practical old bird. He suggested that they shouldn't spend

all their time singing, especially now, before the summer came. Then he

thought it was all right to play and sing all day. But it would be nicer

now, he thought, to do a little work.



"The old robin
s idea was that certain robins every morning should

start out and dig up worms, for then they could get more than they

wanted and could help supply the flocks and flocks of newcomers. Then

other robins could go into the woods and get the new little berries

that had just come up, and the rest of the robins would keep a shop in

the biggest tree of the park. All the birds would do their shopping

there in the most central place.



"All the robins agreed that it would be an excellent scheme and so much

better than idling away all their time.



"As soon as a new flock of birds would come to the park the other birds

would tell them about the shop of the robins, and off they would fly to

it. And such good things as the robins all had in their shop! It kept

them pretty busy hurrying around to get enough provisions to last for

all of their customers as well as themselves. But they thoroughly

enjoyed being so busy and decided that there was nothing in the world

like work. At night they would feel so much better than if they'd been

idle all day, and then they felt as if they had really been doing some

good, for it was a great, great help to all of the other birds. You can

imagine how they wouldn't be able to find things so quickly and they

wouldn't know right away where the softest earth was so as to dig for

the worms.



"Of course some of the early bird families did arrive as early as the

robins, but the robins were the thoughtful and unselfish ones who

thought of the other birds."



"Did they charge anything for the things they sold?" asked Jack.



"No," said daddy; "the old robin said that birds should never charge

each other anything, and, besides, they really felt that the work was

doing them good and that then they'd enjoy the summer all the more.



"And the other birds certainly did appreciate what the robins

were doing for them.



"The shop of the robins grew to be just like a daily party, for all the

birds would fly there every day just about the same time, and after they

had picked out the berries and the worms that struck their fancies

they'd stay around and chirp and chat with the robins and each other."



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