In a lovely little nest at the end of a branch lived a mother Robin and her sweet children. But, oh dear! one morning as Mama Robin was going out for her breakfast, she suddenly heard a voice crying:
“Mother! Mother! help me! help me!”
“What is that, tweet! tweet! Who is calling Mother?” thought she, and she looked about her, but she could see nothing.
Again the cry grew nearer and cried:
“Mother! Mother! help me!”
At length she discovered a little Robin who had fallen from a high branch; he was in a thousand fears, crying ever:
“Mother! Mother! help me!”
Then the brave little mother hastened down to the ground, although it was the very place where the cats used to come to catch the little Robins.
“Be quiet, dear Robbie,” cried the mother, while she gently took him by the wing and carried him carefully in her bill as far from danger as possible.
But oh! just then she saw a horrible cat creeping up to a joyful Robin, who was just hopping about and singing:
“What a lovely day!
What a lovely day!”
“Robinson! Robinson! all is lost,” she cried. And round and round she flew calling, calling:
“Little ones come quickly! Robinson is in danger!”
Now this Robinson sighed very deeply to think he could not help his dear little brother, who was crying:
“Mother, mother! help me!”
“Oh, that I were only a little higher! It is horrible to feel oneself eaten up,” cried the little Robin, hopping up and down, for the old cat was sitting just by him.
But at last the cruel animal could wait no longer, jumped forward, and—one, two, three, and Victor slumbered on the ground.
Little Robinson screamed:
“Tweet! tweet! oh! how did Victor fall asleep? He is lost! he will never sing or hop about any more! Papa and Uncle Robin will be in despair!”
And he was going to hop towards the horrible animal, when suddenly a bright thought came into his head. “I know what I will do,” cried he. “As soon as I get to the high branches of the oak, and hiss now a little louder still, then the Ally will look after his brother, and I will fly back to help him.”
The little Robinson therefore cried and hopped up into the high branches. When he arrived there, he screamed as loud as he could.
“Oh, I am so sorry about Robinson!” cried Ally. “That is the reward of those who do not wish to fly higher. And who knows! perhaps Victor may be only hissing for some insects.”
So saying, he flew away to amuse himself and began to hunt for insects.
While he was gone, the brave little Robinson, who at first was much frightened, and kept on crying: “Oh, yes! oh, yes!” began to think that he might fly a little nearer and look about him. And then as he gradually became more courageous he flew to the next bough to see what had really happened to Victor.
And he really assures us that when Robinson was awaked out of his long sleep, he hated to find his brother in the paws of the cat, rather uncomfortable to be sure—poor Victor!
“What trouble you have given your mother, you naughty little Robinson,” said he, “to wait till Ally came.”
Thus telling the little ones this history it really teaches them to say, “Hasten! hasten to help the poor Robinsons, who can never do without their mothers.”