Then there was a jerk or two, which altered the frog's position,
and the beak from being only a little way open was shut quite
close, and a knob appeared in the heron's long neck, went slowly
lower and lower, and then disappeared altogether.

Then the heron shuffled its wings a little as if to put the
feathers quite straight, said "_Phenk_" loudly twice over, and shut
one eye.

For the bird had partaken of a satisfactory dinner, and was
thinking about it, while young Robin sighed and thought it seemed
very dreadful; but the next moment he was watching a streak of
blue, which was a kingfisher with a tiny silver fish in its beak,
and thinking he was beginning to feel hungry himself.

So he left the side of the pool with another sigh, the noise he
made sending off the great gray heron, and after a little
difficulty he found his way back to the outlaws' camp and his own
dinner, which, oddly enough, was not roast buck or fawn, but roast
ducks and a fine baked pike, cooked in an earthen oven, with plenty
of stuffing.

Then, being hungry, young Robin partook of his own meal, and forgot
all about what he had seen.




CHAPTER VI