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Tale of Bobby Bobolink

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<h3>SLEEPY BENJAMIN BAT</h3> Leaving the two noisy cousins (Jasper Jay and old Mr. Crow) Mr. Hermit Thrush hurried back across Cedar Swamp and went straight to an old hemlock tree, where he knew he would find Benjamin Bat asleep. Hanging by his heels head downward from a limb, Benjamin Bat did not hear the Hermit speak to him until that soft-spoken gentleman had called to him several times. But at last Benjamin Bat opened his eyes and stared around in a bewildered fashion. It was broad daylight. And he couldn't see what had disturbed him. He seemed somewhat alarmed too, until the Hermit said, "Don't be frightened! It's only I!" Well, Benjamin Bat knew right away that nobody but the Hermit would speak in just that way. And he was much relieved to know that it wasn't Solomon Owl that had awakened him. "I'm glad you roused me," he said, "though generally I hate to have my sleep broken. But just now I was having a nightmare. I was dreaming that a monstrous Katydid was chasing me. And if you hadn't called to me I don't know what would have happened.... I think," he added, "I must have dined too heartily—on Katydids—last night." The Hermit couldn't help looking a bit shocked. He had never approved of Benjamin Bat, who prowled about at night when all respectable people were at home and asleep. And as for over-eating, that was something the Hermit wouldn't think of doing. But if he must choose between Benjamin Bat and Bobby Bobolink for a neighbor, of the two the Hermit preferred Benjamin Bat, because Benjamin was always asleep in the daytime, while at night he never disturbed the Hermit's rest. "I've come to ask a favor of you," Mr. Hermit Thrush explained. "Perhaps you don't know there's a noisy nuisance hereabouts who calls himself Bobby Bobolink?" "I do," Benjamin Bat admitted. "But I've never seen him—nor even heard him." "Then you are a sound sleeper indeed," the Hermit observed. "He's always a-jingling and a-jangling." "That sounds as if he might be a bell," Benjamin Bat remarked. "He's a bird," the Hermit explained. And then he proceeded to tell Benjamin Bat how Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay had quarrelled because Mr. Crow said that Bobby Bobolink couldn't beat Benjamin Bat in a race, while Jasper Jay claimed that he could. "What I'd like you to do is to have a race with Bobby Bobolink to-morrow," the Hermit announced. But Benjamin Bat shook his head. "It doesn't interest me," he said. "Let Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay quarrel all they want to!" And before the Hermit had time to coax him to change his mind, Benjamin Bat fell fast asleep. Nor could the Hermit rouse him again. THE END <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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