nd a Hen passed by, taking their daily
airing. They had not been invited to the tea party and so they were
greatly excited at hearing the commotion; grandfathers, and fathers,
and cousins, and sons among the birds were all talking and arguing at
once.

"Wat? Wat?" clucked the Hen.

"I will go and see, my dear," said the Rooster, and so he rushed into
the midst of the tea party to see what all the hubbub was about. When
he found out, he had a plan to offer. He was often called upon to
settle disputes among the Hens, so he was always quite willing to help
in any such matters.

"Have a test! Have a test!" said the Rooster. "You will never decide
anything by arguing in this way; but it shall be decided that the bird
who is able to fly the highest shall be your king."

This seemed a fair way of settling the matter. All the birds agreed to
it except the Plover, who went off into the woods and has lived there,
wild, ever since.

Then the birds lighted in a row, and spread their wings, and flew with
all their strength, and as high as they could, up, up into the air.
One by one, though, they dropped back for they did not all have the
same strength of wing. The Lark flew higher, indeed, than most of
them, but finally he, too, was outstripped by the Eagle, who soared
and soared until he was only a speck in the sky.

"The Eagle is our king! The Eagle is king of the birds!" sang all the
others; but, no! Way, way above the Eagle flew another bird, so tiny
that he looked like nothing but a mote, floating in the sunlight. It
was the little brown bird that sings alone in the hedges, and had no
name then. He had hidden himself in the Eagle's feathers and had been
carried up with him until he wanted to fly on by himself.

"I am the king of the birds!" he twittered as he flew down among the
others again.

But the other birds did not wish this. They did not like to think of
so tiny and humble a bird being exalted to be their king. They were
about to fall upon the little brown bird and drive him out of their
midst when the Rooster spoke to them again. Since the plan had been
his, he wanted to make a success of it, so he said,

"The mistake was mine, all mine. This is how we will arrange it. The
bird that is able to fall deepest into the earth shall be your king."

The Rooster had a plan of his own in mind when he said this. As all
the birds began to look about for places to jump into deeper places,
and the Duck tried to see how