ead stick and flung it at the drake, who hastened
off down the stream; the pike, startled at the splash, darted up the
brook, and the frog swam over in a minute. Then the birds began to come
down to the drinking-place, where the shore shelved very gently, and the
clear shallow water ran over the sandy bottom. They were all in their
very best and brightest feathers, and as the sun shone on them and they
splashed the water and strutted about, Bevis thought he had never seen
anything so beautiful.

They did not all bathe, for some of them were specially permitted only
to drink instead, but they all came, and all in their newest dresses. So
bright was the goldfinch's wing, that the lark, though she did not dare
speak, had no doubt she rouged. The sparrow, brushed and neat, so quiet
and subdued in his brown velvet, looked quite aristocratic among so much
flaunting colour. As for the blackbird, he had carefully washed himself
in the spring before he came to bathe in the brook, and he glanced round
with a bold and defiant air, as much as to say: "There is not one of you
who has so yellow a bill, and so beautiful a black coat as I have". In
the bush the bullfinch, who did not care much to mix with the crowd,
moved restlessly to and fro. The robin looked all the time at Bevis, so
anxious was he for admiration. The wood-pigeon, very consequential,
affected not to see the dove, whom Bevis longed to stroke, but could
not, as he had promised the reed to keep still.

All this time the birds, though they glanced at one another, and those
who were on good terms, like the chaffinch and the greenfinch, exchanged
a nod, had not spoken a word, and the reed, as a puff came, whispered to
Bevis that the prophecy would certainly come to pass, and they would
all be as happy as ever they could be. Why ever did they not make haste
and fly away, now they had all bathed or sipped? The truth was, they
liked to be seen in their best feathers, and none of them could make up
their minds to be the first to go home; so they strutted to and fro in
the sunshine. Bevis, in much excitement, could hardly refrain from
telling them to go.

He looked up into the sky, and there was the hawk, almost up among the
white clouds, soaring round and round, and watching all that was
proceeding. Almost before he could look down again a shadow went by, and
a cuckoo flew along very low, just over the drinking-place.

"Cuckoo!" he cried, "cuckoo! The goldfinch has the pre