caddis-grubs and a little worm. "But am I mistaken, or did I see you eat
a grub just now, madam, which your husband brought you?"

"A grub...?"

"Yes ... isn't that a child too?"

"I shall faint in a minute," said Mrs. Reed-Warbler; and she did.

"Wriggle and twist!" said the eel; and off he went.

The reed-warbler brought his wife back to life with three fat flies,
seven sweet songs and a jog on her neck.

[Illustration]

"You ought to appreciate me, at any rate!" he said, when she was
sufficiently recovered for him to speak to her. "The way I feed you and
sing to you! Think what other husbands are like."

"So I do," she replied.

CHAPTER III

A Mother

[Illustration]

Time passed and all respectable bird-wives were sitting on their eggs
and wearing a serious look in their eyes, while their husbands went
hunting for flies or sang to them.

It was the same at the Reed-Warblers'. But there was no denying that the
husband was sometimes a little tired and cross. Then he would reflect
upon the easy time which the Eel husband had and the Frog husband and
the Perch husband and all the others.

One evening he sat in the nest and sang:

Now spring is here, to God all praise!
Though in hard work I'm up to the eyes.
For billing and cooing I'd just seven days;
Now I've to flutter about after flies
For my little wife, who our eggs is hatching;
And don't those flies just take some catching!
And each chick will want food for the good of its voice.
Aha, I have every right to rejoice!

"If you're tired of it, why did you do it?" said little Mrs.
Reed-Warbler. "You took pains enough to curry favour with me at first.
How smart you used to look. I believe you're already beginning to lose
your colouring."

"It's weary work," he said. "When a fellow has to go after flies like
this, in all weathers, his wedding-finery soon wears out."

"I don't think you're singing as nicely as you did," said she.

"Really? Well, I can just as easily stop. It's for your sake that I pipe
my tune. Besides, you can see for yourself that I'm only joking. I'm
tremendously glad of the children. It will be an honour and a pleasure
to me to stuff them till they burst. Perhaps we might have been
satisfied with three."

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" she said.

"So I am, dear, because of the other two. But, as I don't know which two
those are, it makes no difference."

She put on a very serious f