THE ROBINS OPEN A SPRING SHOP

The Robins Agreed It was a Good Scheme.

"The robins, having left their warm winter home, had settled near a great, big, lovely park," said daddy. "Now, one of the robins happened to be a very practical old bird. He suggested that they shouldn't spend all their time singing, especially now, before the summer came. Then he thought it was all right to play and sing all day. But it would be nicer now, he thought, to do a little work.

"The old robin's idea was that certain robins every morning should start out and dig up worms, for then they could get more than they wanted and could help supply the flocks and flocks of newcomers. Then other robins could go into the woods and get the new little berries that had just come up, and the rest of the robins would keep a shop in the biggest tree of the park. All the birds would do their shopping there in the most central place.

"All the robins agreed that it would be an excellent scheme and so much better than idling away all their time.

"As soon as a new flock of birds would come to the park the other birds would tell them about the shop of the robins, and off they would fly to it. And such good things as the robins all had in their shop! It kept them pretty busy hurrying around to get enough provisions to last for all of their customers as well as themselves. But they thoroughly enjoyed being so busy and decided that there was nothing in the world like work. At night they would feel so much better than if they'd been idle all day, and then they felt as if they had really been doing some good, for it was a great, great help to all of the other birds. You can imagine how they wouldn't be able to find things so quickly and they wouldn't know right away where the softest earth was so as to dig for the worms.

"Of course some of the early bird families did arrive as early as the robins, but the robins were the thoughtful and unselfish ones who thought of the other birds."

"Did they charge anything for the things they sold?" asked Jack.

"No," said daddy; "the old robin said that birds should never charge each other anything, and, besides, they really felt that the work was doing them good and that then they'd enjoy the summer all the more.

"And the other birds certainly did appreciate what the robins were doing for them.

"The shop of the robins grew to be just like a daily party, for all the birds would fly there every day just about the same time, and after they had picked out the berries and the worms that struck their fancies they'd stay around and chirp and chat with the robins and each other."