Jolly 's worrying wife wouldn't give him a moment's peace.
 
"You'd better get along over to the raspberry patch," she kept telling him. "If you don't hurry that terrible Reddy Woodpecker will eat every berry. He'll snatch each one as it and we shall not have any to feed our children."
 
Now, Jolly Robin didn't care to have any trouble with Reddy Woodpecker. But he soon saw that if he avoided Reddy he would only have trouble with Mrs. Robin. So at last he said, "Very well! I'll attend to him, my love." And off he flew, looking much braver than he felt. You'd have thought, to see him, that he longed to find Reddy Woodpecker. Really he hoped that he wouldn't find Reddy anywhere.
 
Much to Jolly Robin's dismay he met Reddy Woodpecker among the raspberry bushes. Jolly jumped when he saw that dashing newcomer. But it was too late to out of sight. Reddy Woodpecker saw him. So Jolly Robin made up his mind to put on a bold front. Sitting on a fence post that overlooked the raspberry patch he stared hard at Reddy Woodpecker. He thought perhaps he could frighten him away.
 
He might as well have stared at the barn door. To his great Reddy Woodpecker picked a berry and flew to a near-by post, where he sat and ate the fruit with . When he had finished the dainty he pretended to notice Jolly Robin for the first time and he bowed and scraped in the politest fashion.
 
Still Jolly Robin did not utter a word. Nor did he return any of Reddy's bows. But he began to feel himself ; he began to feel his feathers up. And he knew then that he must speak soon or burst. For there was no doubt that he was growing angry. So presently he cried:
 
"Was that raspberry ripe?"
 
"Yes," replied Reddy Woodpecker, "and very juicy."
 
Now, Jolly Robin hadn't meant to ask any such question as that. He had meant to make some cutting remark. But he was so in the habit of being pleasant to everybody that it was very hard for him to be disagreeable.
 
"A-ahem!" he sai............