"that he has to keep the birds from being
naughty. Some birds are just awful mischiefs, Chub. There's the
magpies, you know, that steal; and the crows that fight; and the
jackdaws that are saucy, and lots of others that get into trouble.
Seems to me P'liceman Bluejay's a pretty busy bird, if he looks after
things as he ought."

"Prob'ly he's got his hands full," said Chubbins.

"Not that; for he hasn't any hands, any more than we have. Perhaps you
ought to say he's got his wings full," suggested Twinkle.

"That reminds me I'm hungry," chirped the boy-lark.

"Well, we've got the basket," she replied.

"But how can we eat cake and things, witched up as we are?"

"Haven't we mouths and teeth, just the same as ever?"

"Yes, but we haven't any hands, and there's a cloth tied over the top
of the basket."

"Dear me!" exclaimed Twinkle; "I hadn't thought of that."

They flew together to the basket and perched upon the edge of it. It
seemed astonishingly big to them, now that they were so small; but
Chubbins remarked that this fact was a pleasant one, for instead of
eating all the good things the basket contained at one meal, as they
had at first intended, it would furnish them with food for many days to
come.

But how to get into the basket was the thing to be considered just now.
They fluttered around on every side of it, and finally found a small
place where the cloth was loose. In a minute Chubbins began clawing at
it with his little feet, and Twinkle helped him; so that gradually they
managed to pull the cloth away far enough for one of them to crawl
through the opening. Then the other followed, and because the big
basket was not quite full there was exactly room for them to stand
underneath the cloth and walk around on top of a row of cookies that
lay next to a row of sandwiches.

The cookies seemed enormous. One was lying flat, and Chubbins declared
it seemed as big around as the dining-table at home.

"All the better for us," said Twinkle, bending her head down to nibble
at the edge of the cookie.

"If we're going to be birds," said Chubbins, who was also busily eating
as best he could, "we ought to be reg'lar birds, and have bills to peck
with. This being half one thing and half another doesn't suit me at
all."

"The witch wasn't trying to suit us," replied Twinkle; "she was trying
to get us into trouble."

"Well, she did it, all right," he said.

It was not so hard to eat as they had feared, for t