Since it was a moonlight night, Willie Whip-poor-will spent all the time until sunrise in hunting for food. Now and then he stopped to rest and sing his queer song, which Jolly Robin did not like.
But Jolly Robin slept so soundly that for once Willie’s singing never disturbed him at all.
XXIII
A COLD GREETING
When Jolly Robin awoke a little before dawn, after his night in the woods, he did not know at first where he was.
Now, it happened that just as he was awaking in the cedar tree, Willie Whip-poor-will was going to sleep on the ground right beneath him. So when Jolly at last looked down and spied his friend, he remembered what had happened.
“My goodness!” he said with a nervous laugh. “I fell asleep here last night! And I wonder what my wife will say when I get home.” He would have liked to try to rouse Willie Whip-poor-will and speak 117 to him about learning the new song. But he was so uneasy on account of what his wife might say about his having stayed away from home all night that he flew away as fast as he could go.
It was exactly as he had feared. When he reached his house in the orchard his wife greeted him quite coldly. In fact, she hardly spoke to him at all. And when Jolly told her, with a good many chuckles, what a joke he had played on himself—falling asleep as he had, while making a call upon Willie Whip-poor-will—she did not even smile.