"Pardon me!" Bobby Bobolink said, for he was determined to be just as
polite as the Hermit. "I never sing mournful songs. So you see you are
mistaken."

Now, for some reason the Hermit thought that a rude remark, though it
was quite like one that he had made himself but a few moments before. He
drew himself up stiffly and said that he didn't care to talk with Bobby
Bobolink any further. "You know," he added, "we haven't been
introduced."

Somehow that amused Bobby. Before he knew what he was doing he had
laughed aloud. And the moment he laughed he felt so happy once more that
he couldn't help singing. So he started right in the middle of a song,
where it was the liveliest. And finding, when he had finished, that he
hadn't exploded, but felt better for the effort, he never paid any more
heed to the Hermit's solemn warning.

As for the Hermit, he went straight off to the other side of Cedar Swamp
to live. He claimed that he simply had to have quiet. And there was no
such thing, with Bobby Bobolink around.

XXII

A NOISY QUARREL

One odd thing marked Bobby Bobolink's flights. He never flew in a
straight course, as old Mr. Crow did, but darted this way and that,
crossing and turning and wheeling, until it seemed sometimes--to
onlookers--that he was sure to skid into a tree and meet with an
accident. And usually Bobby Bobolink would sing with such zest
while he was frisking about in the air that it was a marvel to
many how he could do two things like that, at the same time, and
yet put so much life into each.

Old Mr. Crow claimed that the reason why Bobby Bobolink didn't fly
straight was because he had his mind too much on his singing.

"He's nothing but a music-box with wings," Mr. Crow often croaked. "As a
flier he couldn't even beat crazy Benjamin Bat."

It was the general opinion that Benjamin Bat could make a longer journey
between two points than anybody else in Pleasant Valley. And there were
some that disputed Mr. Crow's statement. Jasper Jay even went out of his
way to tell Mr. Crow that he had heard of his remark, and that he was
mistaken. And they had such a wrangle that they annoyed Mr. Hermit
Thrush, way over on the other side of Cedar Swamp. Old Mr. Crow and
Jasper Jay were cousins. And everybody knows that there is nothing
worse than a cousinly quarrel.

In order to quiet them, the Hermit left his mossy retreat, in a dense
thicket, found the two cousins, and asked them, "What are you two