Bobby Bobolink and his wife had finished their new nest.

"There!" Mrs. Bobolink exclaimed, as she gave the lining of soft grasses a final pat. "There's not another thing to be done to it."

"It's perfect!" Bobby told her. "But I think I can make one slight improvement, for we mustn't forget Henry Hawk." And while his wife looked on somewhat anxiously he bent a few grass stalks over so that they completely hid the nest from anybody passing overhead.

p. 43"Henry Hawk will never spy our nest now," Bobby remarked a few minutes later, as he flew back and forth over the spot and tried in vain to catch a glimpse of their new home. "If I can't see it as near as I am, Henry Hawk will never find it as he sails high above the meadow, for all his eyes are terribly sharp."

Mrs. Bobolink then told her husband that his improvement was a fine one. And Bobby was so well pleased that he sang a song for his wife, while she rested from her labors.

After that they flew off and told all their friends that their new home was built. But they didn't invite anybody to a house-warming, for that was not their way. They never so much as told people where their house was hidden. They were afraid that some gossip might drop a hint to old Mr. Crow, or his noisy cousin, Jasper Jay,p. 44 or perhaps Mr. Blackbird. And later there would be something in the nest that would have made a dainty meal for any one of those rascals. No! Mr. and Mrs. Bobolink did not intend to have their nest robbed of its treasure—not if they could help it!

Now, it was only a short time later that Bobby Bobolink and his wife shared a wonderful secret. Five grayish-white eggs, each quite pointed at one end, lay in their nest. And nobody but themselves was a bit the wiser.

To be sure, the neighbors remarked that Bobby Bobolink was simply bursting with song. He was more musical than ever. But they never dreamed what it was that could make him even happier than he had always been.

At last there came a time when Bobby—though he was just as happy—seemedp. 45 to have less leisure for singing. And then it was easy for the neighbors to guess the reason for that, because it was plain that the Bobolink family was not gathering great numbers of grasshoppers and caterpillars merely for the fun of it.

Hidden as the little Bobolinks were in the tall grass, no stranger found them. Of course, Mrs. Bobolink went to some trouble to keep the secret of her nest in the family. Whenever she left her home she moved along the ground a little way before rising into view. And when she returned she alighted some distance off and scurried through the grass until she reached home.

By taking such pains she kept others from knowing exactly where her nest was. And nothing had happened to alarm her until one day she caught sight of Johnnie Green. He had come into the meadow top. 46 hunt for strawberries. And to Mrs. Bobolink's dismay he was headed straight for her house.

p. 47