ope of finding a cast-off coat of Mr. Black Snake. It was such a funny
thing for Cresty to ask for that Peter's curiosity would allow him no
peace, and the next morning he was up in the Old Orchard before jolly
Mr. Sun had kicked his bedclothes off.

Jenny Wren was as good as her word. While she flitted and hopped about
this way and that way in that fussy way of hers, getting her breakfast,
she talked. Jenny couldn't keep her tongue still if she wanted to.

"Did you find any old clothes of the Snake family?" she demanded. Then
as Peter shook his head her tongue ran on without waiting for him to
reply. "Cresty and his wife always insist upon having a piece of Snake
skin in their nest," said she. "Why they want it, goodness knows! But
they do want it and never can seem to settle down to housekeeping unless
they have it. Perhaps they think it will scare robbers away. As for me,
I should have a cold chill every time I got into my nest if I had to sit
on anything like that. I have to admit that Cresty and his wife are a
handsome couple, and they certainly have good sense in choosing a house,
more sense than any other member of their family to my way of thinking.
But Snake skins! Ugh!"

"By the way, where does Cresty build?" asked Peter.

"In a hole in a tree, like the rest of us sensible people," retorted
Jenny Wren promptly.

Peter looked quite as surprised as he felt. "Does Cresty make the hole?"
he asked.

"Goodness gracious, no!" exclaimed Jenny Wren. "Where are your eyes,
Peter? Did you ever see a Flycatcher with a bill that looked as if it
could cut wood?" She didn't wait for a reply, but rattled on. "It is a
good thing for a lot of us that the Woodpecker family are so fond of new
houses. Look! There is Downy the Woodpecker hard at work on a new house
this very minute. That's good. I like to see that. It means that next
year there will be one more house for some one here in the Old Orchard.
For myself I prefer old houses. I've noticed there are a number of my
neighbors who feel the same way about it. There is something settled
about an old house. It doesn't attract attention the way a new one does.
So long as it has got reasonably good walls, and the rain and the
wind can't get in, the older it is the better it suits me. But the
Woodpeckers seem to like new houses best, which, as I said before, is a
very good thing for the rest of us."

"Who is there besides you and Cresty and Bully the English Sparrow who
uses