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."