he top of it."

When they heard that, Jolly Robin and his wife stopped laughing.

XVI

DANGER AHEAD

Jolly Robin and his wife were terribly worried. Grunty Pig meant to
uproot the apple tree where they had their nest. Every day he came and
dug at the foot of the tree. Every day, just before he went away, he
looked up at them and said, "I hope you'll sleep well to-night. You'd
better enjoy your home while you have it, for the tree will be flat on
the ground before fall."

Sleep! Mrs. Robin complained that she never had a good night's rest any
more. She said that she had bad dreams. She dreamed that the tree was
falling. And then she was sure to wake up with a start. And her husband
wasn't there to calm her, because he was roosting in a thicket over in
the pasture with their first brood of the season.

They both agreed--Jolly and his wife--that they must get their second
brood of children out of the nest as soon as they could.

"The moment they're old enough, we must teach them to fly," Mrs. Robin
told her husband.

"Yes!" he said. "And we'll have to be careful of them, too, with all
these seven young porkers in the orchard."

"Suppose--" said Mrs. Robin--"suppose Grunty Pig should bring our tree
toppling to the ground before the children leave the nest!"

"Oh! There's no danger of that," Jolly assured her. She was always
looking on the dark side of things. But he didn't tell her so.

"I don't know how we're going to be sure the children are safe," Mrs.
Robin continued. "How long do you think it will take Grunty Pig to
uproot our tree?"

Jolly Robin had to confess that he couldn't answer his wife's question.

"Then ask somebody who knows something about such matters!" Mrs. Robin
cried. And there was a tart note in her voice that made Jolly Robin say
hastily, "Yes! Yes, my dear! I'll go right now and find an answer to
your question."

Off he flew. And not knowing where else to go, he sat down on a bush in
Farmer Green's garden, to ponder. Who could tell him how long it would
take Grunty Pig to uproot the old apple tree? Although Jolly Robin
thought and thought, he could think of no one whom he might ask. To be
sure, there was Tommy Fox, who was known to be an able digger. But Jolly
Robin didn't trust him. Tommy Fox was tricky. And there was Billy
Woodchuck, who came from a famous family of burrowers. But everybody
knew that old dog Spot had chased him into his hole that very afternoon,
and was wat