- 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
