n8 THE NATURE-STUDY IDEA 



Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link, 



Spink, spank, spink ; 

 This new life is likely to be 

 Hard for a gay young fellow like me. 

 Chee, chee, chee. 



Robert of Lincoln at length is made 



Sober with work, and silent with care 5 

 Off is his holiday garment laid, 

 Half forgotten that merry air : 

 Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link, 

 Spink, spank, spink; 

 Nobody knows but my mate and I 

 Where our nest and our nestlings lie. 

 Chee, chee, chee. 



Summer wanes ; the children are grown ; 



Fun and frolic no more he knows ; 

 Robert of Lincoln's a humdrum crone ; 

 Off he flies, and we sing as he goes : 

 Bob-o'-link, bob-o'-link, 

 Spink, spank, spink; 



When you can pipe that merry old strain, 

 Robert of Lincoln, come back again. 

 Chee, chee, chee. 



From Complete Works of William Cullen Bryant. 

 Published by D. Appleton & Co. 



This was the exercise that the children were 

 having as I visited the school on a June morning. 

 It was the new old song by which Bryant is 



