Page:The art of story-telling, with nearly half a hundred stories, y Julia Darrow Cowles .. (IA artofstorytellin00cowl).pdf/259

 *ing a merry greeting from among the red berries. Nowadays I do not see him so often, but I have heard the story of how he came to be there. Listen, and you shall hear it, too.

First, you must know that the English Robin Redbreast (which is the one in my story) does not go South in the fall as our robin does. That is why the little English children sing:

The North wind doth blow, And we shall have snow, And what will the robin do then, poor thing? He'll stay in the barn, And keep himself warm, And tuck his head under his wing, poor thing.

Generally Robin gets through the winter very well, but sometimes he has a pretty hard time, and that is why this story came to be told.

One year, about Christmas time, there came a long spell of cold, stormy weather. It would snow, and all the children would shout for joy; then it would rain, and they would almost cry from disappointment; then again it would freeze, and they would run and slide and skate on the ice, only to be driven in by more snow and wind. So