Birds and All Nature, Vol. VII, No 1, January 1900

<h2><SPAN name="THE_ROBINS_MISTAKE" id="THE_ROBINS_MISTAKE"></SPAN> THE ROBIN'S MISTAKE.</h2> <p class="ac">L. WHITNEY WATKINS.</p> <div class="poetry-container"> <div class="poetry"> <div class="verse">The scene was the bank of a crystal brook</div> <div class="verse">Where a saucy young robin had paused to look,</div> <div class="verse">As the morning sun had gilded the waves</div> <div class="verse">Which sparkled and sang thro' the autumn days.</div> <div class="verse">He glanced at the leaves, that had copied his breast,</div> <div class="verse">The leaves that in springtime had shielded his nest;</div> <div class="verse">Then turning his head with a bird like grace,</div> <div class="verse">He searched in the stream for his mirrored face.</div> <div class="verse">Not his mottled coat of rusty brown</div> <div class="verse">He saw in the brook-bed sloping down,</div> <div class="verse">But a touch of gray with an amber dab&mdash;</div> <div class="verse">The reflected form of a brooklet crab.</div> <div class="verse">He gazed in surprise at the specter-like thing,</div> <div class="verse">Then chirping aloud and raising each wing,</div> <div class="verse">In terror he turned from the ghost-haunted place</div> <div class="verse">And met on the bank the real crab face to face.</div> <div class="verse">Young Robins, like "others," are inclined to be "gay,"</div> <div class="verse">And our hero's misfortune occurred in this way:</div> <div class="verse">He considered a moment; his foe seemed quite weak,</div> <div class="verse">And he ventured a peck with his slim, shiny beak.</div> <div class="verse">A flutter, a scream&mdash;up the bank Robin came;</div> <div class="verse">He found two could play at the same little game,</div> <div class="verse">And the waves as they fled, with a smile and a gleam,</div> <div class="verse">Carried crab and brown feathers adown with the stream.</div> </div></div> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</SPAN></span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />