The country over which King Chrysanthemum
reigned was very far inland, so there was very little
talk about the sea-serpent, but everybody was
agitated over the question whether there was, or
was not, a Blue Robin.
The whole kingdom was divided about it. The members of parliament were “F. B. R.,” for Blue
Robin or “A. B. R.,” against Blue Robin. The
ladies formed clubs to discuss the question, and
sometimes talked whole afternoons about it, and
the children even laid down their dolls, and their
tops to search for the Blue Robin. Indeed, many
children had to be kept tied to their mother’s
apron-strings all the time to prevent them from
running away to a Blue Robin hunt. It was a
very common thing to see ladies going to a Blue
Robin club, with a child at each apron-string, pulling
back and crying, “I want to go hunting the
Blue Robin! I want to go hunting the Blue
Robin!”
The country was agitated over this question for
many years, then finally there were riots about it.
People had to lock themselves in their houses,
and when the Blue Robin party was uppermost,
paint blue robins on their front doors, and when
it was not, wash them off. After the riots commenced,
it was really almost all that people could
do to paint blue robins on and wash them off,
their front doors.
At last King Chrysanthemum had to take extreme
measures. He decided to consult the Wise
Man. A committee was chosen of eight
F. B. R.’s, and eight A. B. R.’s, and a chairman, and they set out at once, marching four abreast,
the chairman with his chair leading the way, to
consult the Wise Man. He had to be found before
he could be consulted, however, and that was
a very difficult matter. The Wise Man considered
it the height of folly to live like other people
in a house immovably fixed upon one spot
of ground, and therefore he always carried his
house about with him, as a turtle carries his
shell.
He had fashioned a little dwelling of cloth and
steel ribs, something like an umbrella, which he
strapped to himself, and lived in, traveling all over
the country in pursuit of wisdom.
The committee marched a whole week, before
they came upon the Wise Man one afternoon in a
pasture where huckleberries grew. He was standing
quite still when they approached and made
their obeisances. The Chairman of the committee
placed his chair, a rocking-chair with a red
plush cushion, before the Wise Man, seated himself,
and spoke. “All Hail, Wise Man!” said he
in a loud voice.
The Wise Man’s house had a little door in front
like a coach door, and two tiny windows. One
of the windows had the curtains drawn, but out
of the other looked the Wise Man’s calm blue right eye. There was so much wisdom in his
two eyes that he knew people could not comprehend
it, so he always curtained one window. The
house was about one foot higher than his head,
and reached to his ankles. They could see his
feet in their leather sandals below it.
The Wise Man said not one word in response
to the Chairman’s salutation, only looked at him
with his blue right eye. Then the Chairman laid
the matter before the Wise Man and besought his
aid in the terrible situation of the country. After
the Chairman had ceased speaking there was a
silence for half an hour. Not a sound was to be
heard except the creaking of the Chairman’s rocking-chair.
Then the Wise Man cleared his
throat. The committee leaned forward expectantly,
but they had to wait another half hour before
he spoke, and then it was not very satisfactory.
“Ideas are not as thick as huckleberries
in this pasture,” was all he said.
The committee looked at one another, and
nodded ruefully. It was quite true, but it did not
help them in their dilemma. They waited another
half hour; then the Wise Man began moving
off across the pasture in his house.
“Oh, stop, stop!” cried the Chairman. “Stop,
stop!” cried the committee. They all ran after
him, and begged him not to go away until he had
given them some useful advice.
“Offer a reward!” called out the Wise Man,
as he scudded away.
“For what, for what!” cried the committee.
“For finding the Blue Robin,” called out the
Wise Man, and then a puff of wind caught his
umbrella-like house, and he was lifted quite off
his feet, and bobbed away out of sight over the
huckleberry-bushes.
The committee hastened back to the city, and
reported. Another special parliament was called,
and the reward for finding the Blue Robin was offered.
That was really a difficult matter, because
the Princess Honey was only five years old,
and the customary reward—her hand in marriage—could
hardly be offered. However, it was
stated that if the finder of the Blue Robin was of
suitable age when the Princess was grown, she
should be his bride; and furthermore that he and
all his relatives should be pensioned for life and
that he should be appointed Poet Laureate, and
given a regiment, a steam yacht, a special train,
and a pound of candy every day from the national
candy mills. The offer was painted in blue letters
on yellow paper, and pasted up all over the country,
and then the search began in good earnest.
Business all over the kingdom was at a standstill.
Nobody did anything but hunt the Blue Robin.
People ate nothing in those days but cornmeal
pudding, hastily mixed and boiled. There was
no bread baked, because all the bakers and all the
housewives were out hunting the Blue Robin. The
mothers untied the children from their apron-strings,
and the schools were all closed, because
it was agreed that finding the Blue Robin
and establishing peace in the kingdom, was of
more importance than books, and all the children
who were old enough were out hunting—that is,
all the children except Poppy.
It should be stated here that everybody in this
country, with the exception of the Princess, had a
flower-name. The Princess was so much sweeter,
that only the inmost sweetness of all flowers was
good enough for her name, and she was called
Honey.
Poppy was about ten years old, and his father
was an editor of a newspaper, and very poor. He
could scarcely support his five children. His wife
had died the year before, and he could not afford
to hire a housekeeper.
So Poppy had to stay at home, and keep the
house, and take care of his four young brothers
and sisters, while his father was away editing, and
he could not hunt the Blue Robin. It was a great
cross to him, but he loved his little brothers and
sisters, and he made the best of it.
After the search for the Blue Robin began, his
father was much busier, and had often to be away
all night, so Poppy had to rock and trot the twin
babies, Pink and Phlox, and go without sleep, after
working hard cooking and washing dishes and
sewing all day. Poppy had to mend the children’s
clothes, and he was even trying to make some little
frocks for Petunia and Portulacca. They were
twins also, five years old.
As Poppy sat in the window and sewed, with
his right foot rocking Pink’s cradle, and his left
foot rocking Phlox’s, with Petunia and Portulacca
sitting beside him on their little stools, he told
them all he had ever heard about the wonderful
Blue Robin.
“Nobody is even quite certain he has seen it,
himself,” said Poppy, “but he knows somebody
else, who knows somebody else, who has; and if
you ever could find the first somebody, why he
could tell where the Blue Robin was.”
“Can’t they find the first somebody?” asked
Portulacca.
“I guess he died before people were born,” said
Poppy. Then he went on and told Petunia and Portulacca how there was a wonderful blue stone
in the King’s crown, which was unlike all other
precious stones, and said to be the Blue Robin’s
egg; and how there was a little Blue Book in the
King’s library which had a strange verse in it about
the Blue Robin.
Then Poppy repeated the verse. He had
learned it at school. It ran in this way:
“He who loveth me alone,
Can tell me not from stick or stone;
He who loveth more than me,
Shall me in fullest glory see.”
“What does that mean?” asked Petunia and
Portulacca.
“I don’t know,” replied Poppy. Then he
mended faster than ever. Many children ran
past the window, hunting the Blue Robin, but he
did not complain, even to himself.
That night his father did not come home, and
Pink and Phlox cried as usual, and he had to rock
them, and trot them. About midnight, however,
they both fell asleep in their cradles, and Poppy
began to think he might get a little rest himself.
He could scarcely keep his eyes open. Petunia
and Portulacca had been sound asleep in their
cribs ever since seven o’clock.
Everything was very still, and he was just dozing, when he heard a sound which made him start
up wide awake at once, although the children never
stirred. He heard a single sweet bird-pipe,
sweeter than anything he had ever heard in his life,
and it seemed to be right in the room at his
elbow. When the babies fell asleep Poppy
had blown out the candle, the hearth-fire had gone
out, and the room had been very dark, but now
something was shining on the table like a lamp,
which gave out a wonderful blue light. The sweet
pipe came again. Poppy stared at the blue light
on the table, which grew brighter and brighter,
until he saw what it was. The Blue Robin shone
on his table like a living sapphire, its blue wings
seeming to fan the blue light into flames, its blue
breast brighter than anything he had ever seen.
While all the world was out searching for the
Blue Robin, it had come of its own accord to
the poor little faithful boy in his poor little
home.
The children all slept soundly, and did not stir.
Poppy stood up trembling, and went over to the
table, and immediately the Blue Robin flew to his
hand, and clung there.
Then Poppy went out of the house, and down
the road to the King’s palace with the Blue Robin
on his hand. Although it was so late, scarcely anybody had gone to bed. They were all out
with lanterns, hunting for the Blue Robin.
When Poppy with the Blue Robin on his hand
came in sight, all the lanterns went out.
“What is that?” the people cried, “what is that
wonderful blue light?”
They crowded around Poppy.
Then all of a sudden they shouted, “Poppy has
found the Blue Robin! Poppy has found the
Blue Robin!” and followed him to the King’s Palace.
The shouts were heard in the newspaper office
where Poppy’s father was hard at work, and he
ran to the window. When he saw his son with
the Blue Robin, he was overwhelmed with joy.
He stuck his pen behind his ear and came down
on the fire-escape, and also went to the palace.
The King had not gone to bed, though it was so
late, neither had the Queen. They were talking
about the Blue Robin and the perilous state of the
country with the Prime Minister, on the front
door-step.
When they saw Poppy and the Blue Robin, and
all the people, and heard the shouts of joy, the
King tossed his crown in the air, the Prime Minister
swung his hat, and the Queen ran in and
wrapped up the Princess Honey in a little yellow silk gown, and brought her to see the wonderful
sight.
It was wonderful—the Blue Robin on Poppy’s
hand seemed to light the whole city. Poppy, by
the King’s order, stood on the top door-step, and
everybody could see the bird on his hand. Then
the Blue Robin began to sing, and sang an
hour without ceasing, so loud that everybody could
hear.
When the bird stopped singing, the King advanced.
“You shall now receive your reward,”
he said to Poppy, “and I will take the Blue Robin,
and put him in a golden cage, and have him
guarded by a regiment of picked soldiers.”
The King extended his hand and Poppy his,
but just as the King touched the Blue Robin, he
disappeared. There came a faint song from far
above the city roofs, and people tipped back their
heads, and strained their eyes, but they could not
see the Blue Robin; they never saw him again, as
long as they lived.
However, he had been seen by many witnesses,
and the object of the search was attained. There
were no longer two parties in parliament, and the
country was in a state of perfect peace. Indeed,
parliament only met afterward to agree, and eat
cake and ice cream, and shake hands.
Poppy had his reward at once—that is, everything
but the hand of the Princess Honey—and he
and his father and his little brothers and sisters,
were very rich and happy, until he grew to be a
man. Then the Princess Honey had grown to
be a beautiful maiden, and he married her with
great pomp, and the King gave them the Blue
Robin’s egg for a wedding-present.
