“I should think you would be ashamed of yourself,” she told him. “Willie Whip-poor-will is a good-for-nothing rascal. Everybody talks about the way he prowls through the woods all night and seldom goes to bed before morning. And his wife is no better than he is. They’re 118 too shiftless even to build themselves a nest. Mrs. Whip-poor-will leaves her eggs on the ground. And that’s enough to know about her.
“If you like to spend your time with such trash you’d better go over to the woods and live,” Mrs. Robin said. And then she turned her back on her husband and set to work to clean her nest.
Jolly and his wife happened to have five small children at the time. They were so young that they had never left home, not having learned to fly. And they were all clamoring for their breakfast.
Thinking to please his wife, Jolly Robin went off and began gathering angleworms for the youngsters. But when he brought them home his wife told him that he had better eat them himself.
“I am quite able to feed my own children without any help from a person who 119 doesn’t come home until after daybreak,” she said.
And she acted like that for two whole days. Naturally, Jolly Robin felt very uncomfortable during that time. And ever afterward he took good care to have nothing to do with Willie Whip-poor-will.
He did wish, however, that Willie would learn a new song. For Jolly disliked more than ever to hear that “Whip-poor-will! Whip-poor-will!” repeated over and over again. It always reminded him of the time he made his wife angry by spending the night away from home.
THE END