rson that he couldn't keep
still long. Especially when he was singing he liked to be on the
move. So when he saw that Timothy Turtle wasn't going to speak
immediately Bobby leaped from the bush where he was perched and
began flying joyously over the swamp.

All the time he sang with all his might, making so much music that he
could not hear Timothy Turtle calling to him at last.

Once in a while Bobby wheeled above Mr. Turtle, so that the old fellow
might enjoy his best notes. He little knew that Mr. Turtle was crying to
him to stop, for goodness' sake! And noticing that Timothy's mouth was
moving, Bobby Bobolink said to himself:

"He looks terribly fierce; but of course he's only commanding me not to
stop singing."

It was no wonder that Bobby Bobolink thought as he did, because his
neighbors were always begging him to sing something for them.

"It must be that Mr. Turtle wanted to see me so he could ask me to sing
some songs for him," Bobby thought. And wishing to please Timothy
Turtle, Bobby Bobolink sang as he hadn't sung all summer long.

At last Timothy Turtle felt that he couldn't bear to hear another note.
And flopping off the stump, he splashed into the water and sank to the
bottom of the swamp, where he buried his head in the mud.

And there he stayed until he dared hope that Bobby Bobolink had stopped
singing, or gone away to a distant part of the country.

"Has anybody seen Timothy Turtle?" Bobby Bobolink kept calling as soon
as he noticed that Mr. Turtle had vanished. But no one knew where the
old fellow was. And at last Bobby gave up looking for him. But he
thought it strange that Timothy hadn't waited to hear the rest of his
song.

"I hope he isn't ill," Bobby told his friends.

But they only laughed.

"Timothy Turtle is altogether too old and tough to have much the matter
with him," they said. "If he's ill, it's nothing but ill temper."

XX

A HERMIT'S ADVICE

THERE was another, besides Timothy Turtle, who was not pleased when
Bobby Bobolink moved to Cedar Swamp at haying time. But this was a
very different sort of person. It was Jolly Robin's cousin, Mr. Hermit
Thrush. Everybody called him "the Hermit" for short, because he was a
quiet gentleman, who did not like to attract attention, but preferred
to spend his time in a thicket on the edge of the swamp. He had a
beautiful, sweet song, which he sang in a calm, unruffled fashion when
he thought nobody was near.

The Hermit loa