he King of the Birds

[Illustration]

The thirteen little wrens sat on the Apple-yard wall in the King's
Garden and their mother was there to teach them to fly. One called
them the little wrens, but really each one was as big as their mother.
She had a tail, however, that was most cunningly cocked and they had
no tails, and the consequence was that when they made their little
flights they always went sideways. Moreover, their beaks were still
yellow and wide and open and this is always a sign of the young bird.

"All I ask of you," said the mother, "is that when you go into the
World you remember that you are the Children of the King of the
Birds."

"Now why does our Mother call us the Children of the King of the
Birds?" said one little wren to the other. "I think we're really very
small. And I think our Mother is very small. And there's our Father
behind that ivy-leaf and he's very small too."

[Illustration]

"And wherever you go, be sure to conduct yourselves like the Children
of the King of the Birds," said the Mother.

"It's because we were reared in such a fine nest," said another
little wren. "No other birds in the world had ever a finer nest than
we have had. That's the reason we're called the Children of the King
of the Birds."

"Men call the Wren the King of the Birds," said the Father Wren, as he
flew up on a tree, "and surely men ought to know who is the King of
the Birds."

"Why do men call the Wren the King of the Birds?" said the little
wrens.

"I will tell you," said the Mother. "As we fly from the wall to the
tree, and from the tree back to the wall, I will tell you why men
honor the wren as the King of the Birds."

She spent a whole day telling the little wrens the story and the Boy
Who Knew What the Birds Said was there, and he heard the whole of
it.--

* * * * *

The King of the Hither-side of the Mountain conquered the two villages
of Half-a-Loaf and Windy-Gap, and the very day he conquered he ordered
the two Headmen to come before him.

"You two Headmen are to see that your villages, Half-a-Loaf and
Windy-Gap, send me my rightful tribute," said the King to them.

"There isn't much we can send...." said the Headman of Half-a-Loaf.

"A string of salmon," said the Headman of Windy-Gap.

"A basket of plover's eggs," said the Headman of Half-a-Loaf.

"No," said the King, "the tribute that each of your villages must send
me is the King of the Bird