they have made up themselves, and which they did not
learn of us, and then because they are not happy, they say: 'The world
is growing old'. But it is not true, Bevis, the world is not old, it is
as young as ever it was. Fling me a leaf--and now another. Do not you
forget me, Bevis; come and see me now and then, and throw twigs to me
and splash me."

"That I will," said Bevis; and he picked up a stone and flung it into
the water with such a splash that the kingfisher flew away, but the
brook only laughed, and told him to throw another, and to make haste and
eat the peck of salt, and grow bigger and jump over him. "That I will,"
said Bevis, "I am very hungry now--good-morning, I am going home to
dinner."

"Good-morning, dear," said the brook, "you will always find me here when
you want to hear a song." Bevis went home to dinner humming the tune the
brook had taught him, and by-and-by, when the hot sun had begun to sink
a little, he started again for the copse, and as before the dragon-fly
met him, and led him to the timber, and from there to the raspberries.

The squirrel was waiting for him on a bough of the oak, and while Bevis
picked the fruit that had ripened since yesterday, told him the news the
peewits had brought about the great rebel Choo Hoo. A party of the
peewits, who had been watching ever so far away, thought they saw a stir
and a movement in the woods; and presently out came one of the captains
of the wood-pigeons with two hundred of his soldiers, and they flew over
the border into King Kapchack's country and began to forage in one of
his wheat-fields, where the corn was ripe. When they saw this, the
peewits held a council on the hill, and they sent a messenger to
Kapchack with the news. While they were waiting for him to return, some
of the wood-pigeons, having foraged enough, went home to the woods, so
that there was not much more than half of them left.

Seeing this--for his soldiers who were wheeling about in the air came
and told him--the captain of the peewits thought: "Now is my time! This
is a most lucky and fortunate circumstance, and I can now win the high
approval of King Kapchack, and obtain promotion. The captain of the
wood-pigeons has no idea how many of us are watching his proceedings,
for I have kept my peewits behind the cover of the hill so that he could
not count them, and he has allowed half of the wood-pigeons to go home.
We will rush down upon the rest, and so win an easy victory