Page:The art of story-telling, with nearly half a hundred stories, y Julia Darrow Cowles .. (IA artofstorytellin00cowl).pdf/152

 *Top, Singer, Toddy, and Speckle grew bigger, they began to make a very crowded nestful of birds.

Now the children had been taught a little verse which said:

Birds in their little nests agree, And 'tis a shameful sight When children of one family Fall out, and chide, and fight;

and they thought anything really written and printed must be true; therefore they were very much astonished to see, from day to day, that their little birds in their nest did not agree.

Tip-Top was the biggest and strongest bird, and he was always shuffling and crowding the others, and clamoring for the most food. Speckle was a bird of spirit, and he used to peck at Tip-Top, while Brown-Eyes was a meek, tender little fellow. As for Toddy and Singer, they turned out to be sister birds, and showed quite a feminine talent for chattering.

"I say," said Tip-Top one day, "this old nest is a dull, crowded hole, and it's quite time some of us were out of it."

"My dear boy," said Mother Robin, "we