"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 said. "Pardon me, sir! Did—did you know that my wife and I have been expecting to pick these raspberries for our children?"
But he might as well have said nothing at all. For Reddy Woodpecker only laughed and exclaimed, "You’re a joker, aren’t you?"
"Yes, you are," said Reddy Woodpecker. "You can’t fool me. I know well enough that you don’t intend to bring your children up on berries. I’ve seen you pulling angleworms for them too many times." Then Reddy dropped off his post and clung to a bush while he picked another berry that seemed redder than the rest.
"Well," Jolly thought, "I’ve talked to him anyhow. At least I can tell my wife that." So he left Reddy to enjoy the fruit and sailed away to his home.
"You’re back very quickly," Mrs. Robin remarked when she saw him. "Didn’t you find that Woodpecker person?"
"Oh, yes! I found him," Jolly explained. "I found him and I talked with him, too."
Mrs. Robin cast a sharp glance at her husband.
"He’s eating raspberries in the berry patch," Jolly told her. "When I talked with him I said——"
"You _said_!" Mrs. Robin interrupted. "You _said_! The question is, what did you _do_? If you didn’t fight him you must go back and do your duty."
There was nothing he could do except obey her. So, feeling very desperate, Jolly Robin hurried back to the place where the raspberry bushes grew by the fence. He gave three loud chirps, to encourage himself. And then he darted down and sailed very close to Reddy Woodpecker’s head. He didn’t pause an instant to see what effect this action had on Reddy Woodpecker, but flew away as quickly as he could. "I guess I scared him that time," he muttered.
Meanwhile Reddy Woodpecker stared after him and watched him as he disappeared among the apple tree tops.
"Well, what do you think of that?" he said to himself with a grin.
Jolly Robin told his wife how he swooped down over Reddy Woodpecker’s head. And he assured her that he had no doubt that Mr. Woodpecker would not be seen among the raspberry bushes again.