As soon as she could speak she called "Chenk, chenk!" at the top of her voice.[p. 49] She could think of nothing else to say.
Luckily Bobby was not far away. And hearing his wife's alarm call, he turned to hurry home. But seeing Johnnie Green, he swerved sharply aside and dropped down upon a tuft of grass not too near the nest.
And then Bobby Bobolink made a great fuss. He cried "Chink, chink!" over and over again, now fluttering into the grass, now bobbing into sight again. Johnnie Green couldn't help noticing 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.
[p. 50]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.