Mary Jane: Her Book | Page 6

to the back yard and
watch, you may see what tree Mr. Robin goes to with his worms. That
will tell you what tree his nest is in."
Mary Jane ran around to the back yard and that was the last Mrs.

Merrill saw of her till she called her to get ready for dinner some time
later.
Mr. Merrill was late to dinner, but when he came Mary Jane asked him
all the questions that her mother had been unable to answer.
"Wait a minute!" exclaimed he. "Where did you see this robin that
you're talking about?"
"In the front yard and in the back yard," said Mary Jane, "both of
them."
"Then I'll venture to guess that it's the very same robin whose nest I
discovered this morning," said Mr. Merrill. "I meant to tell you about it
but was in such a hurry to get away I forgot."
"Oh, did you see his nest?" exclaimed Mary Jane excitedly; "his really
truly for sure nest, Daddah?"
"That I did," replied her father, "and I'll show it to you."
"Let's go now," cried Mary Jane. "Won't you please excuse us,
mother?" And she slipped down from her chair.
"Too late now," said her father, "might as well climb back and finish
your dinner. You can't find a bird's nest after dark--and you can see that
it's almost dark now. You wait till morning and I'll show you that nest
first thing."
"As soon as I'm dressed, Daddah?" asked Mary Jane.
"Before you're dressed," promised her father, with a twinkle in his eye,
"you just see!"
Mary Jane was so excited she could hardly go to sleep that night and
Mrs. Merrill laughingly said that her dreams would likely be a circus of
ants and robins. But she must have been mistaken, because little girls
who wake up as bright and early as Mary Jane did that next day, don't
waste their nights a-dreaming.
"Daddah!" she called to her father in a loud whisper, "are you waked up?
Daddah!"
"Um-m," said her father sleepily, "what is it?'
"Did you forget the nest," asked the little girl, "it's light now."
"To be sure," replied her father, who by now was wide awake; "put on
your slippers and come over by my bed and look."
Mary Jane reached down from her bed, picked up her dainty slippers
and put them on; then she threw back the covers and hurried over to her
father's bed.

At the back of the Merrill home, upstairs, was a broad sleeping porch,
sheltered by wide eaves and completely screened. There, each in his or
her own little bed, father and mother and Alice and Mary Jane slept
every night. Of course each had their own room in the house, with a
comfortable bed for daytime rests, and stormy nights and the like; but
almost every night in the year all four of them slept out of doors. Just
behind the sleeping porch was an old apple tree and it was to this tree
that Mr. Merrill now pointed.
Mary Jane looked and looked and then, suddenly, she saw the nest! Set
way back among the leaves it was and on it was sitting the mother bird.
"I expect the father bird is getting breakfast for the family," said Mr.
Merrill, "and the mother is keeping the babies warm till they have
something to eat. You better get dressed now, little girl," he added, "but
you may come up here after breakfast and I guess that, if you watch
quietly, you can get a glimpse of the babies."
As quickly as breakfast was over, Mary Jane hurried back up the stairs
to the sleeping porch and, sure enough, the mother bird and the father
bird were both gone and those cunning baby robins--four of them--were
stretching way out of the nest! Mary Jane almost gasped at first she was
that surprised; but she didn't call out, no, indeed! She kept very still and
watched--and watched. And the longer she looked the more certain she
became that something was wrong.
"They do open their mouths so funny," she thought to herself. "I know,
I just know they wouldn't open their mouths so wide if something
wasn't wrong."
She thought a few minutes and then an idea occurred to her. The robin
babies were thirsty--of course!
"I know how I felt that time we took too long a ride and I got thirsty,"
she thought, "and their mother don't know and their father isn't here
either. I'll just have to get them a drink!"
But how to get a drink to four baby robins in the old apple tree--that
was a problem that Mary Jane couldn't figure out all at once. But she
didn't give up, no, sir! She thought and thought,