The White Robin Author:Miss Read Young Helen Coggs spotted the white robin first. It was on a hot July afternoon--too hot to listen to Miss Read's lecture on word derivations--and the wise headmistress of Fairacre's village school shooed her charges out-of-doors. — "Oi bin and sin a whoit bird," Helen declared. Her school chums were scornful. It was probably a ... more »seagull or a Leghorn hen from the neighboring farm. Whoever heard of a little white bird?
Then the vicar saw the white bird and was positive that it was a white robin. Soon Fairacre was agog. Henry Mawne, the local ornithologist, wrote a long essay on albinism in British birds for the Caxley Chronicle, accompanied by photos of the beautiful visitor. It was Henry who decided to move the annual village fete away from the vicarage grounds, where the bird was roosting. "Just because he's bird-barmy," muttered one Fairacre resident. Most were very proud and very protective of the robin, especially the redoubtable Mrs. Pringle.
But the white robin came to a tragic end, much to the grief and fury of the villagers, who were well acquainted with the culprit. For a while things looked ugly indeed, and the robin's death cast a very long shadow over the winter months.
Then one fine spring day hope returned. Could the vicar's wife really have seen another white robin? Or was it just a flutter of white paper, or a nodding blossom? The sun seemed to shine more brightly and the primroses grew larger than ever as rumors flew about the town....« less