SLEEPY BENJAMIN BAT
LEAVING the two noisy cousins (Jasper Jay and old Mr. Crow) Mr. HermitThrush hurried back across Cedar Swamp and went straight to an oldhemlock tree, where he knew he would find Benjamin Bat asleep.
Hanging by his heels head downward from a limb, Benjamin Bat did nothear the Hermit speak to him until that soft-spoken gentleman had calledto him several times.
But at last Benjamin Bat opened his eyes and stared around in abewildered fashion. It was broad daylight. And he couldn't seewhat had disturbed him. He seemed somewhat alarmed too, untilthe Hermit said, "Don't be frightened! It's only I!"
Well, Benjamin Bat knew right away that nobody but the Hermit wouldspeak in just that way. And he was much relieved to know that it wasn'tSolomon Owl that had awakened him.
"I'm glad you roused me," he said, "though generally I hate to have mysleep broken. But just now I was having a nightmare. I was dreaming thata monstrous Katydid was chasing me. And if you hadn't called to me Idon't know what would have happened.... I think," he added, "I must havedined too heartily--on Katydids--last night."
The Hermit couldn't help looking a bit shocked. He had never approved ofBenjamin Bat, who prowled about at night when all respectable peoplewere at home and asleep. And as for over-eating, that was something theHermit wouldn't think of doing. But if he must choose between BenjaminBat and Bobby Bobolink for a neighbor, of the two the Hermit preferredBenjamin Bat, because Benjamin was always asleep in the daytime, whileat night he never disturbed the Hermit's rest.
"I've come to ask a favor of you," Mr. Hermit Thrush explained. "Perhapsyou don't know there's a noisy nuisance hereabouts who calls himselfBobby Bobolink?"
"I do," Benjamin Bat admitted. "But I've never seen him--nor even heardhim."
"Then you are a sound sleeper indeed," the Hermit observed. "He's alwaysa-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 tellBenjamin Bat how Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay had quarrelled becauseMr. Crow said that Bobby Bobolink couldn't beat Benjamin Bat ina race, while Jasper Jay claimed that he could. "What I'd likeyou to do is to have a race with Bobby Bobolink to-morrow," theHermit announced.
But Benjamin Bat shook his head.
"It doesn't interest me," he said. "Let Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay quarrelall they want to!"
And before the Hermit had time to coax him to change his mind, BenjaminBat fell fast asleep. Nor could the Hermit rouse him again.
THE END.
* * * * * * * * * * * *