“Here, wake up!” Jolly cried, as he nudged Willie under a wing.
Again Willie Whip-poor-will sprang up with a bewildered expression.
“Hullo!” he said. “What’s the trouble? Did a tree fall?”
“You went to sleep while I was talking to you,” Jolly Robin explained.
“Oh!” said Willie Whip-poor-will. “That doesn’t matter. You must be used to that.” And the words were scarcely 110 out of his mouth before he had fallen asleep again.
Jolly Robin looked at him in a puzzled way. He didn’t see how he could teach Willie his “Cheerily-cheerup” song unless he could keep him awake. But he thought he ought to try; so he gave Willie a sharp tweak with his bill.
“Did you hear what I said about your singing?” he shouted right in Willie’s ear.
Willie Whip-poor-will only murmured sleepily:
“It’s rheumatism. I just felt a twinge of it.”
He had no idea what Jolly Robin was talking about.