"Impossible! You don't know what you're talking about!" Jasper Jay and Mr. Crow both cried at the same time.
The Hermit shuddered. He was not accustomed to such language. It hurt his[p. 109] gentle nature to be spoken to like that. But he managed to stay there while the cousins told him that such a race as he had suggested couldn't be arranged, because Benjamin Bat was always asleep in the daytime, and Bobby Bobolink took his rest at night. The two could never meet.
"Perhaps," said the Hermit, "I could persuade Benjamin Bat to change his habits for once. Maybe he would be willing to stay awake some day, just to oblige me."
"Bobby Bobolink is an obliging fellow," Jasper Jay remarked. "Why don't you ask him to stay awake some night?"
But the Hermit said that that wouldn't suit him at all. "The Bobolink person would be sure to sing his most boisterous song," he said, "and it would wake me up and spoil my night's sleep. Let me[p. 110] speak to Benjamin Bat!" he urged the two cousins.
And in the end they let him have his way.