Bobby Bobolink was not like Mr. Crow, who would have flown into a rage had any one made such a remark to him.
"I stayed a while in the rice fields," he answered. "And if I hadn't come away when I did," he added with a laugh, "I'd have been too fat to fly way up here to Pleasant Valley."
Then a torrent of notes came tumbling out of his throat as he darted right over the head of old Mr. Crow (who stood on a hillock) and swerved and zigzagged and wheeled through the air, until Mr. Crow almost tied his neck into a knot, just watching him.
"By the way," Mr. Meadowlark said in an undertone to Mr. Red-winged Blackbird, "our friend Bobby has a different[p. 14] suit from the one he wore when I last saw him."
"When was that?" Mr. Red-winged Blackbird inquired.
"About the middle of last summer!" Mr. Meadowlark explained.
"Ah! This is the second suit he has had since then," said Mr. Red-winged Blackbird. "If you had been with us in the swamp last fall you'd have known that Bobby had a new one then. And here he is now with still another."
Mr. Meadowlark looked a bit troubled.
"I liked the black one—the black one with the white and buff trimmings," he remarked. "It was very becoming to Bobby Bobolink. I was hoping he'd wear one like it this summer."
"Wait!" was Mr. Red-winged Blackbird's mysterious answer. "Wait! And[p. 15] I promise you won't be disappointed."