She was beginning to like Martha, too. That
seemed a good many people to like -- when you
were not used to liking. She thought of the robin
as one of the people. She went to her walk outside
the long, ivy-covered wall over which she could
see the tree-tops; and the second time she walked
up and down the most interesting and exciting
thing happened to her, and it was all through Ben
Weatherstaff's robin.

She heard a chirp and a twitter, and when she
looked at the bare flower-bed at her left side there
he was hopping about and pretending to peck
things out of the earth to persuade her that he had
not followed her. But she knew he had followed
her and the surprise so filled her with delight that
she almost trembled a little.

"You do remember me!" she cried out.
"You do! You are prettier than anything else
in the world!"

She chirped, and talked, and coaxed and he
hopped, and flirted his tail and twittered. It
was as if he were talking. His red waistcoat was
like satin and he puffed his tiny breast out and was
so fine and so grand and so pretty that it was really
as if he were showing her how important and like
a human person a robin could be. Mistress Mary
forgot that she had ever been contrary in her life
when he allowed her to draw closer and closer to

[[82]]

p081 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p082w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p083

v?