"Yes," replied Reddy Woodpecker, "and very juicy."
Now, Jolly Robin hadn't meant to ask any such question as that. He had meant to make some cutting remark. But he was so in the habit of being pleasant to everybody that it was very hard for him to be disagreeable.
"A-ahem!" he said. "Pardon me, sir! Did—did you know that my wife and I have been expecting to pick these raspberries for our children?"
But he might as well have said nothing at all. For Reddy Woodpecker only laughed and exclaimed, "You're a joker, aren't you?"
"No, I'm not," Jolly replied.
"Yes, you are," said Reddy Woodpecker. "You can't fool me. I know well enough that you don't intend to bring your children up on berries. I've seen you pulling angleworms for them too many times." Then Reddy dropped off his post and clung to a bush while he picked another berry that seemed redder than the rest.
"Well," Jolly thought, "I've talked to him anyhow. At least I can tell my wife that." So he left Reddy to enjoy the fruit and sailed away to his home.
"You're back very quickly," Mrs. Robin remarked when she saw him. "Didn't you find that Woodpecker person?"
"Oh, yes! I found him," Jolly explained. "I found him and I talked with him, too."
Mrs. Robin cast a sharp glance at her husband.