Chapter 3

He was a likely-looking lad, who wore a bay cap on his head. And he had excellent manners, too. He said "Good-evening!" to Rusty very pleasantly and touched his cap. No doubt he would have taken it off had it not grown right on his head. "I see you want a boy," he observed.

"I certainly do!" said Rusty Wren. "What's your name?"

"They call me 'Chippy, Junior,'" the youngster told him.

"Is that so?" Rusty exclaimed. "Then your father must be Mr. Chippy, who lives in the wild grapevine on the stone wall by the roadside."

Chippy, Jr., nodded brightly. And when he said, "_Chip, chip, chip, chip_," Rusty knew that there could be no doubt about it.

"Wait just a moment!" he told Chippy, Jr. "I want to speak to my wife about you." And then he darted back into his house.

"My dear," he said to Mrs. Rusty, "I've found the very person! Little Mr. Chippy's son is outside and I'm sure we ought to be glad to have a modest young man like him to help us."

"He comes from a good family," Mrs. Rusty admitted. "But don't you know that the Chippys are bigger than we are? Not much bigger, to be sure. But Mr. Chippy certainly couldn't get through our doorway."

"Quite true, my love!" Rusty Wren agreed. "But it's his son--not _he_--that wants to work for us. And this young lad is not full grown. I should say he was hardly my size."

Though his wife hesitated, she could think of no further objection. So at last she told Rusty that he might ask Chippy, Jr., to come back early the next morning.

"But I have a feeling that this is going to lead to trouble," she said once more. Rusty Wren said, "Nonsense!" He was overjoyed at the prospect of having a spry young helper. And he hurried out to tell Mr. Chippy's son that he might start to work at daybreak.

That polite young man touched his cap again, promised that he would return without fail, and then went _chip-chipping_ away toward home, for it was already his bedtime.

For all he was still hungry, Rusty Wren slept better that night than he had for a long while. He felt as if a great load had been lifted off his shoulders.

He slept so soundly, in fact, that he never waked up all when Fatty Coon and Tommy Fox came at midnight to view his sign, "Boy Wanted."

They made a good deal of noise, too, grumbling not a little because there was not the least sign of a sign anywhere they looked.

As soon as he had engaged Chippy, Jr., to work for him, Rusty Wren had taken down the sign, "Boy Wanted." And so all further callers were bound to be disappointed.

XVI

THE ACCIDENT

Chippy, Jr., proved to be a great success. Even Mrs. Rusty Wren had to admit, before he had finished his first day's work, that he was an agreeable person to have about the house.

"Of course he isn't much of a singer," she remarked to Rusty, "but he seems to have a quick eye for an insect, and he is kind to the children. He is very neat, besides. I have watched him sharply," she added, "and I haven't caught him tracking any dirt into the house--nor brushing any off his clothes onto my clean floor, either."

Rusty, too, declared himself well satisfied with his helper.

"He's a spry worker," he said. "And he can get through our door as easily as I can. He went in and out of the house two hundred and fifty-seven times to-day; and not once did he get stuck in the doorway."

For several days everything went so smoothly in Rusty Wren's household that his wife began to feel more like herself again. Jasper Jay did not come near their house to annoy them; and there was plenty of food for all--thanks to the untiring efforts of Chippy, Jr. Though she tried her hardest, Mrs. Rusty couldn't think of anything to worry about. And her husband frequently remarked that it was a lucky day for all of them when he decided to hire a boy.

Both Rusty and his wife had quite forgotten the strange feeling of that good little lady's that some sort of trouble was coming to them on account of taking an outsider into their house.

So the days passed happily for them. And all the while their six children were fast growing bigger. The proud parents often remarked that they had never before known youngsters to change so rapidly.

So interested were Rusty and his wife in their children that they failed to see that Chippy, Jr., was growing likewise. Indeed, he now overtopped Rusty by half a head. But the Wrens--both husband and wife--entirely overlooked that fact.

Neither did they happen to notice that Chippy, Jr., was beginning to have a good deal of trouble squeezing through the door. For some reason--due, perhaps, to the way the opening was made--for some reason he could get into the house more easily than he could get out of it.

He said nothing about this new difficulty, not wishing to disturb the happiness of the Wren family, nor find himself out of work, either.

Since he continued to grow from day to day there could be but one outcome. And at last when Rusty came home late one afternoon with a plump insect in his bill he found Chippy, Jr., blocking the doorway. His head peered through the round opening. And his face wore a worried expression.

"Hurry up!" said Rusty Wren. "I want to come in."

And at that Chippy, Jr., began to struggle to get out. But he couldn't move either forward or back.

"Be spry!" Rusty said impatiently. "Don't keep me waiting, boy!"

Chippy, Jr., looked actually frightened.

"I'm stuck fast!" he cried. "I can't move either way!"

XVII

HELP! HELP!

"Help! help!" Rusty Wren called loudly to his wife.

"What's wrong?" she screamed. Since she was inside the house, and Rusty was outside, with Chippy, Jr., blocking the doorway, of course she was alarmed--for she couldn't see her husband.

"This boy's stuck fast in our door," Rusty cried. "And you must help me move him."

"Very well!" she answered in a frightened tone. "But if we can't stir him, I don't know what we'll do." And she began to shriek.

"Don't worry!" Rusty shouted. "Just say when you're ready."

"I'm ready now," she replied.

"One, two, three--all together!" Rusty Wren commanded. And he seized the head of Chippy, Jr., and began pulling as hard as he knew how.

Chippy, Jr., at once let out a frightened cry.

"Stop! stop!" he begged. "I don't know what the trouble is, but I feel as if I should break in two!"

"Well! well!" exclaimed Rusty Wren. And then to his wife he said: "Were you pushing or pulling?"

"Pulling!" she explained. "I was tugging on his coat-tails."

"Ah! That was the trouble," Rusty told poor Chippy, Jr., who looked quite distressed. "I was trying to pull you out; and she was trying to pull you in. But you mustn't mind a little mistake like that."

"Very well!" said Chippy, Jr., meekly. "But please don't do it again!"

"Now----" Rusty directed his wife, so that she might understand clearly what was required of her--"now you must push while I pull."

All their efforts, however, failed to move the unfortunate Chippy, Jr. He remained wedged tightly in the doorway. And at last Rusty declared that they might as well stop trying to get him through it.

"What you must do now," he directed his wife, "is to pull on Chippy, Jr.'s, coat-tails, while I push against his head. And in that way we may be able to clear our doorway."

That plan worked better. In a short time Mr. Chippy's unlucky son suddenly slipped backward, knocking Mrs. Rusty Wren flat on her back. And Rusty himself tumbled into the house and fell on top of the heap.

As soon as they had picked themselves up, Rusty Wren and his wife and Chippy, Jr., looked at one another for a few moments without saying a single word.

Mrs. Rusty was the first to break the silence--if a house may be said to be silent when there are six children in it, all clamoring for something to eat.

"I knew we should have some sort of trouble if we took a stranger into our home," she wailed.

"Why, what's the matter now?" Rusty inquired in surprise.

"Matter?" she groaned. "Here's this great lout of a boy inside our house! And we'll never be able to get rid of him. Instead of his helping us to feed our children, we shall have to feed him! And now we are worse off than we ever were before."

XVIII

THE PUZZLE

Rusty Wren looked quite crestfallen as he listened to his wife's wail. He wished that he had heeded her warning, when she declared that his hiring a boy would certainly lead to trouble.

"What's the matter with you?" Rusty asked his helper, Chippy, Jr. "When you first came to work for us you could slip through our doorway easily enough. But now you're altogether too big."

Chippy, Jr., said that the entrance to their house must have shrunk.

"How could it?" Rusty demanded impatiently.

"It rained last night," the youngster reminded him.

But Rusty Wren said, "Nonsense! The doorway's made of tin--not wood. _You_ have grown--that's the whole trouble! And you've got us into a pretty fix."

"I begin to think that it was all planned this way by his father," Mrs. Rusty told her husband, "so Mr. Chippy wouldn't have to take care of his son. But I don't intend to adopt a big, overgrown boy like him--not when I have six small children of my own!"

Chippy, Jr., couldn't help feeling both uncomfortable and unhappy.

"I want to go home!" he blubbered. "It's almost my bedtime. And my father and my mother won't like it at all if I stay here all night."

"Well," said Rusty Wren, "I don't know how you're going to leave our house if you can't squeeze through the door. So I'll hurry over and tell your father about this trouble, and he can break the news gently to your mother."

Then Rusty went off, flying directly to the stone wall where the Chippy family lived. And soon he was explaining to Mr. Chippy how his son was inside their house and couldn't leave.

Now, Mr. Chippy was unusually mild mannered. But he became greatly excited as soon as he heard Rusty's story.

"It's just like being caught in a trap!" he exclaimed. "And I can't help feeling that you've played a trick on my son--probably to please Johnnie Green.... If you don't set my boy free to-morrow morning at daybreak, I shall certainly make trouble for you."

Mr. Chippy's warning amazed Rusty Wren. But he couldn't help laughing at the idea of anybody causing him any _trouble_.

"I'm so deep in trouble now," he told Mr. Chippy, "there's nothing you can do to make matters any worse for me. I've six growing children to bring up; and now I have your son to take care of; and my wife thinks everything is my fault, because I wanted to hire a boy to help me catch insects.

"So you can't scare me by your threats. I only wish you would come to my house and take your son away with you--if you can."

"I'll come--and I'll tear your house down!" Mr. Chippy cried fiercely. And he began screaming, "_Chip, chip, chip, chip_," in a very shrill voice which was most annoying to hear.

Rusty Wren did not like to listen to him. So he flew back home and went to bed. He only wished that it were possible for Mr. Chippy to break into his house and rescue Chippy, Jr. But since the house was made of tin, Rusty knew that Mr. Chippy was helpless.

"I'll never settle in a tin house again so long as I live!" he groaned.

XIX

A FRIEND, INDEED

The next morning Rusty Wren awakened with a start. Somebody was pounding at his door--and shouting his name, as well. He jumped out of bed to see what was the matter. And, looking outside, he beheld Mr. Chippy, with sixteen of his cousins, all very much excited--if one might judge by their actions.

They were flying back and forth past Rusty's doorway and _chipping_ in shrill and piercing tones.

"I've come for my son," Mr. Chippy informed Rusty Wren. "Send him out here at once or it will be the worse for you."

"I'd be glad to get rid of him if I could," Rusty answered. "But, as I explained to you last night, he has grown so big that he can no longer pass through my doorway."

"I don't care to argue with you?" Mr. Chippy replied. "Just let me have Chippy, Jr., or we'll come inside your house and get him. We'll make trouble for you, too. Perhaps you didn't know that kidnapping a child is a very serious act. I've already asked Solomon Owl's opinion about this matter; and he advises me to take my child away from you by force, if necessary."

"There's no sense in waiting any longer," one of Mr. Chippy's cousins interrupted. "Let's go right in and seize the lad!"

At that the mob crowded round Rusty Wren's door. And the pert gentleman who had just spoken thrust his head through the opening.

That, however, was as far as he was able to go. His shoulders were altogether too broad for the small, round passage. And though his relations attempted to push him into the house, they soon saw that they would never succeed in their undertaking.

"Let me try!" another of Mr. Chippy's cousins cried. But he had no better luck than the first.

Then each of the fourteen remaining cousins--and then Mr. Chippy himself--had his turn at the door. But every one of them found that he was about two sizes too big to squeeze through it.

Rusty Wren, watching then from inside his house, couldn't help laughing, although it was really no joke.

Though he was usually very mild, Mr. Chippy grew terribly angry the moment he heard Rusty's laughter. His sixteen cousins began to scold, too. Again they tried to crowd through Rusty Wren's door. And they made such an uproar that when Johnnie Green stepped out of the farmhouse before breakfast he couldn't help noticing them.

"What's going on here?" he cried. And he hurried to his "wren house," as he called Rusty's home, and drove away the noisy visitors.

Then he shinned up the old cherry tree, to peep inside it. And as soon as he reached the tin can which was Rusty's home Johnnie Green thought he heard an unusual cry within it.

"That doesn't sound like a wren!" he exclaimed. "It sounds exactly like a chipping sparrow!" Then, as he looked, he saw Chippy, Jr.'s, head, with its bright bay cap, peer through the mouth of the syrup can.

"There's a chippy inside my wren house!" Johnnie Green shouted to his father, who had come to a window to see what was going on. "How can I get him out?"

"Wait a moment!" said Farmer Green. And soon he came and handed Johnnie a can-opener.

"Cut out the end of the can!" he directed. "Then you'll be able to reach in and get the little beggar."

Naturally, Chippy, Jr., did not like to be called a "beggar." But he couldn't very well prevent Farmer Green from saying whatever he pleased. So he kept still, while Johnnie Green quickly opened a great hole in Rusty's house. Then Johnnie carefully lifted Chippy, Jr., out of his prison and gave him a toss into the air.

That frightened young gentleman wasted no time. He stopped to touch his cap to nobody, but flew away to his home in the wild grapevine, on the stone wall, as fast as he could go.

Though he had kept quiet, the whole Wren family had made a great uproar. Glad as they were to get rid of their troublesome guest, they objected to having the whole front of their house torn out.

Indeed, Mrs. Rusty began to get ready to move out at once. And everybody knows that moving is no joke--especially if one has six children.

But Johnnie Green bent the tin into place again, so that it was almost the same as new. In fact, the house was even better than ever, because it was more airy.

And Rusty and his wife were so glad to see the last of Chippy, Jr., that afterward they never objected in the least when Johnnie Green called them "my wrens." They had discovered that he was a good friend to have.

XX

AN INVITATION

Rusty Wren's cousin, Long Bill, lived in the reeds on the bank of Black Creek. Although everybody called him "Long Bill," like Rusty Wren he was actually short and chubby. His bill, however, was much longer than Rusty's. You see, he belonged to one branch of the Marsh Wren family; and they all had bills like that.

Long Bill Wren always claimed that his real name was William; but people generally smiled when he made that statement.

It was not often that Rusty met this cousin of his, for Rusty seldom ventured so far from home as Black Creek. And being very fond of water, Long Bill did not care to spend any of his valuable time in Farmer Green's dooryard.

Of course, there was the duck pond not far away--and the river, too. But the only water really close to Rusty's home was the watering-trough. And that was entirely too small to please Long Bill Wren. So no one ever saw him around the farm buildings.

For a long time Rusty had neither seen nor heard of his cousin, when one day Jolly Robin knocked at his door.

"I won't come in," said Jolly (of course he couldn't have, anyhow--being far too big to get through Rusty's door!). "I won't come in, for I merely want to give you a message. Old Mr. Crow came to the orchard to-day and he asked me to deliver an invitation from your cousin who lives near Black Creek."

"That's Long Bill!" Rusty Wren exclaimed.

Jolly Robin nodded. "He's going to have a party," he explained. "And he wants you to come to it."

"When will it take place?" Rusty asked eagerly.

"To-morrow!" said Jolly Robin.

"It's rather short notice," Rusty Wren observed.

"Mr. Crow has been keeping the message for you for some time," Jolly Robin explained. "He said he thought it would be more of a surprise if you didn't know about the party too soon."

"We'll be there, anyhow," Rusty's wife interrupted behind her husband's back. She had been listening with a good deal of interest to Jolly's message.

"But you're not invited," Jolly Robin told her. "This is a men's party--so Mr. Crow says."

"You may tell old Mr. Crow that my husband won't be able to be present," Mrs. Rusty Wren snapped. "He's going to be very busy to-morrow, for he promised to help me with my house-cleaning."

Rusty Wren looked worried. But he said nothing more just then. He wanted to go to his cousin's party. But he did not like to argue with his wife, especially in the presence of a neighbor.

Soon Jolly Robin said he must go back to the orchard, because he had to take care of his children while his wife went out to make a call.

Mrs. Rusty did not urge him to stay. And, since she seemed upset over something, Rusty thought it just as well if their visitor did not linger there too long.

"I was just going to the orchard myself to hunt for insects," said Rusty. "So I'll go with you."

Mrs. Rusty shot a quick look at him.

"Remember! You're going to be busy at home to-morrow!" she warned him.

"Yes! yes!" he said. And he seemed in a bit of a hurry to get to the orchard--it couldn't have been _to get away from home_.

XXI

OFF TO BLACK CREEK

As soon as they reached the orchard, Jolly Robin exclaimed, "There's old Mr. Crow now, over there on the fence! He's come back to get your answer and take it to Long Bill Wren. I'll have to tell him you're sorry--but you're going to be too busy to-morrow to go to the party."

"Tell him----" said Rusty Wren--"tell him that _although_ I expect to be busy, I am going to my cousin's party just the same."

Jolly Robin stopped and sat down on a branch of an apple tree, he was so surprised. "My dear sir!" he cried. "You seem to have forgotten that your wife said you wouldn't be able to accept Long Bill's invitation."

"My wife----" said Rusty Wren--"my wife sometimes makes mistakes. And this is one of them. I wouldn't miss my cousin's party for anything. And I don't intend to, either."

"Good!" cried Jolly Robin. "I'm glad to see that you don't let your wife manage your affairs, though I _have_ heard differently about you, for some people say that----" He stopped abruptly and looked carefully around. Whatever it may have been that he was about to say, for some reason he did not care to have his wife hear it. And he happened to think that perhaps Mrs. Robin might be near-by.

"I don't care what people say," Rusty Wren told him. "When my cousin gives a party it would be a shame if I couldn't go to it."

"I quite agree with you," said Jolly Robin. "And now I'll go and give old Mr. Crow your answer."

"One moment!" Rusty Wren exclaimed. "What time will my cousin's party begin?"

"Five o'clock!" Jolly Robin replied. "And it will last till sundown."

The next morning Rusty Wren helped his wife so spryly that long before midday the house-cleaning was finished. Although she tried her best, Mrs. Rusty could think of no more tasks for her husband to do--except to feed the children. That was a duty that would not be finished until they were old enough to leave home and shift for themselves.

On this day Rusty Wren dropped so many dainties into their gaping mouths that his wife had to tell him that she didn't dare let the youngsters have anything more to eat until the next day.

"And now you ought to stay in the house and have a good rest until just before sunset," she told Rusty. "You've worked very hard ever since dawn. And I know you're tired."

But Rusty declared that he much preferred to be out of doors enjoying the fine weather.

His wife looked at him sharply when he said that. All day long neither of them had mentioned the party which Rusty's cousin, Long Bill Wren, was going to give at five o'clock that afternoon.

"I think," said Rusty, as he moved about uncomfortably under his wife's gaze, "I think that since I've a little time to spare I'd better go and see Mr. Frog, the tailor. You know you've been telling me that my Sunday coat is beginning to look shiny--and I suppose I really ought to have a new one."

Mrs. Rusty said that it was true--he did need a new coat. And she assured her husband that she would be delighted to have him go to the tailor's.

Now, she did not know that Mr. Frog had moved. She thought his shop was on the banks of Broad Brook. But that was just another mistake of hers. And if she had known where his tailoring parlors were then located, she would certainly have raised a good many objections to Rusty's visiting them on the day of his cousin's party. For Mr. Frog's shop was on the banks of Black Creek, where Long Bill Wren spent his summers.

XXII

THE FORGOTTEN GUEST

The shadows were lengthening--for the sun was far over in the west--when Rusty Wren reached Mr. Frog's tailor's shop overlooking Black Creek. Rusty pushed open the door and stepped inside, expecting to find Mr. Frog sitting cross-legged upon his table and sewing busily, according to the tailor's custom, until sunset, which marked the close of Mr. Frog's working day.

But Rusty had hardly entered the shop when he bumped into Mr. Frog with a crash; for Mr. Frog had been hurrying toward the door.

The collision bowled them both over upon the floor. But Mr. Frog did not appear annoyed in the least.

"How-dy do!" he said, almost before he had picked himself up. "If you have come to see me on business, I'm sorry to say that I can't do anything for you to-day.... The fact is, I'm going to a singing-party this evening. And I don't want to be late."

"Why--I'm going to a party, too!" Rusty Wren exclaimed.

"You must be mistaken--for there's to be no party here," Mr. Frog told him.

"Oh! The party I'm going to will be held somewhere else," Rusty Wren explained.

"That's interesting," said Mr. Frog, as he settled his hat more firmly upon his queerly shaped head. "Who's having it--if I may ask?"

Rusty Wren looked at the tailor as if he were much surprised.

"Don't you know about it?" he inquired. "Do you mean to say that my cousin, Long Bill Wren, didn't invite you?"

For a moment Mr. Frog appeared somewhat taken aback.

"He must have forgotten me," he murmured. "I haven't heard a word about his party before.... But I know it's a mistake," he added, with a smile.

"No doubt!" said Rusty Wren politely. "I was going to Cousin Bill's home as soon as you had measured me for a new Sunday coat," he explained.

"Then come right along now!" Mr. Frog cried heartily. "We'll go together. For I'm sure that Long Bill didn't mean to forget me. You know we're the best of friends. I make all his clothes for him; and he has never yet paid me a penny."