cing him.

"There must be a nest there!" he exclaimed under his breath. And he ran
quickly to the spot where Bobby was acting so queerly. But when he got
there Johnnie found nothing.

Bobby Bobolink had fooled him. He never knew how near he came to
stumbling upon the nest, before Bobby played that trick on him.

Mrs. Bobolink was greatly relieved when Johnnie Green left her end of
the meadow. And she told her husband that she had never supposed Johnnie
would come where it was so damp, for fear of getting his feet wet.

Bobby Bobolink did not tell her that he had known all the time that a
little water never troubled Johnnie Green--so long as he didn't have to
wash his face in it.

XI

BOBBY'S NAMES

EVERYBODY--almost--liked Bobby Bobolink. His neighbors in Farmer
Green's meadow enjoyed his singing. And they thought him the merriest
harum-scarum they had ever known. He was even cheerful to look at, too.
For with every bright day that passed, Bobby Bobolink's dress took on a
gayer hue. The truth was that the yellowish tips of his feathers were
wearing away, leaving him a handsome suit of black, set off by a
generous patch of creamy yellow on the back of his neck, with enough
white on his back and shoulders to make a most jaunty costume.

Most of the field people enjoyed Bobby Bobolink's company, for he was
always in high spirits. And many of them were vain enough to like to
be seen with him, on account of his dashing appearance. Mr. Red-winged
Blackbird was especially fond of Bobby's companionship. And he was
forever speaking of his old friend, Bobby Bobolink, and acting as if
he knew Bobby a great deal better than anybody else did.

Mr. Red-winged Blackbird never tired of telling the neighbors about the
good times he and Bobby had together when they were in the South. And he
related many things about Bobby that some of the feathered folk hadn't
heard of.

"There isn't anybody in the valley that has more names than Bobby
Bobolink," Mr. Red-winged Blackbird said to Mr. Crow one day. "Some
people call him the Reed Bird. And down South they scarcely know the
name Bobolink. Down there everybody calls him the Rice Bird. And there's
an island far off in the southern seas where people speak of him as the
Butter Bird."

Now, if the truth must be known, old Mr. Crow was a bit jealous of
Bobby Bobolink. It was said--by those that ought to have known--that
Mr. Crow didn't like it because Bobby Bobolink was not o