ers. "Do you see
how she swallows the peas? She takes too many, and the very best into
the bargain!"--"Coo! coo!"--"How she puts up her top-knot, the ugly,
mischievous creature!" "Coo! coo! coo!"

And every eye sparkled with malice. "Form yourselves in groups! form
yourselves in groups! Little brown creatures! Poor little brownies!
Coo! coo!" So it went on unceasingly, and so will they go on
chattering in a thousand years to come.

The sparrows ate right bravely. They listened attentively to what was
said, and even placed themselves in a row side by side, with the
others. It was not at all becoming to them, however. They were not
satisfied, and they therefore quitted the pigeons, and exchanged
opinions about them; nestled along under the garden palisades, and, as
they found the door of the room open that led upon the lawn, one of
them, who was filled to satiety, and was therefore over-bold, hopped
upon the threshold. "Chirrup!" said he, "I dare to venture!"

"Chirrup!" said another, "I dare, too, and more besides!" and he
hopped into the chamber. No one was present: the third saw this, and
flew still further into the room, calling out, "Either all or nothing!
However, 'tis a curious human nest that we have here; and what have
they put up there? What is that?"

Close in front of the sparrows bloomed the roses; they mirrored
themselves in the water, and the charred rafters leaned against the
over-hanging chimney. But what can that be? how comes this in the room
of the mansion? And all three sparrows were about to fly away over the
roses and the chimney, but they flew against a flat wall. It was all a
picture, a large, beautiful picture, which the painter had executed
after the little sketch.

"Chirrup!" said the sparrows, "it is nothing! It only looks like
something. Chirrup! That is beautiful! Can you comprehend it? I
cannot!" And away they flew, for people came into the room.

Days and months passed, the pigeons had often cooed, the sparrows had
suffered cold in winter, and in summer lived right jollily; they were
all betrothed and married, or whatever you choose to call it. They had
young ones, and each naturally considered his the handsomest and the
cleverest: one flew here, another there; and if they met they
recognised each other by the "Chirrup?" and by the thrice-repeated
scratching with the left leg. The eldest sparrow had remained an old
maid, who had no nest and no family; her favorite notion was to see