“Good!” cried Jolly Robin. “I’m glad to see that you don’t let your wife manage your affairs, though I have heard differently about you, for some people say that——” He stopped abruptly and looked carefully around. Whatever it may have been that he was about to say, for some reason he did not care to have his wife hear it. And he happened to think that perhaps Mrs. Robin might be near-by.
“I don’t care what people say,” Rusty Wren told him. “When my cousin gives a party it would be a shame if I couldn’t go to it.”
“I quite agree with you,” said Jolly Robin. “And now I’ll go and give old Mr. Crow your answer.”
“One moment!” Rusty Wren exclaimed. “What time will my cousin’s party begin?”
“Five o’clock!” Jolly Robin replied. “And it will last till sundown.”
The next morning Rusty Wren helped his wife so spryly that long before midday the house-cleaning was finished. Although she tried her best, Mrs. Rusty could think of no more tasks for her husband to do—except to feed the children. That was a duty that would not be finished until they were old enough to leave home and shift for themselves.
On this day Rusty Wren dropped so many dainties into their gaping mouths that his wife had to tell him that she didn’t dare let the youngsters have anything more to eat until the next day.
“And now you ought to stay in the house and have a good rest until just before sunset,” she told Rusty. “You’ve worked very hard ever since dawn. And I know you’re tired.”
But Rusty declared that he much preferred to be out of doors enjoying the fine weather.
His wife looked at him sharply when he said that. All day long neither of them had mentioned the party which Rusty’s cousin, Long Bill Wren, was going to give at five o’clock that afternoon.