r. Crow." He hoped that he hadn't offended Bobby
Bobolink's wife.

She wasn't really angry. But she was proud of her husband's voice. And
she wanted Mr. Meadowlark to know it.

"I wouldn't think of such a thing as not letting Bobby join your
Society," she declared. "And as soon as we've finished our new house he
can go to every meeting you have, and stay till the end, too."

All this time Bobby Bobolink had been listening anxiously. And when he
heard his wife's last remark he was so overjoyed that he sprang into the
air and began to sing the happiest song he knew, while he darted back
and forth above the heads of his wife and their caller.

"Just listen to him!" Mrs. Bobolink cried, with an air of pride. "Can
you beat that?"

Mr. Meadowlark made a modest reply. He said that in his opinion Bobby
Bobolink was the finest singer that had ever come to Pleasant Valley.

And Mrs. Bobolink was so pleased that she confessed she hoped her
husband could take his test just as soon as possible.

"He shall take it to-morrow!" Mr. Meadowlark promised.

VII

PASSING THE TEST

THE time had come for Bobby Bobolink to sing before the Pleasant Valley
Singing Society. Mr. Meadowlark brought Bobby to the meeting, along the
rail fence between the meadow and the pasture. And he told everybody
that there wasn't really any need of such a test.

"He's by far the finest singer in all these parts," Mr. Meadowlark
declared.

There were a few who might have disputed his statement, had not Bobby
Bobolink been present. They were too polite, however, to do anything
like that. But Mr. Meadowlark himself had a voice of remarkable
sweetness. And many thought that it couldn't be equalled.

"Bobby Bobolink will have to sing for us, just like anybody else, before
we make him a member of this Society," Buddy Brown Thrasher cried, after
he had given a whistle, "Wheeu!" as if to say that he, for one, doubted
Mr. Meadowlark's words. For Buddy Brown Thrasher liked his own singing
about as well as any he had ever heard. In the morning, and again at
night, he was fond of perching himself on the topmost twig of a tree,
where nobody could help seeing him, and singing a song over and over
again. It was his favorite song--and the only one he knew. And having
practiced it all his life, how he could sing it!

Well, after Buddy Brown Thrasher's remarks there was only one thing to
be done. Bobby Bobolink must sing for the Society. And Mr. Meadowlark