ver Greenlawn that spring had come; and
the birds set to work in such a hurry to repair last year's damaged
nests or to make new ones. As to the rooks, they came all in a bustle
to the old limes and held a parliament, which every now and then turned
into a squabble about some favourite spot, and there they all stopped
talking, and flying round and round, but soon began again, to keep on
till it grew quite dark, and then they were silent till some obstinate
bird or another would say something crooked, and then out they all burst
again--"Caw-caw-caw," till the awkward rook was talked down; then
somebody else would have the last word, when they broke out again two or
three times over, till at last it grew so dark that the rooks were
afraid to speak any more, lest somebody should come and upset them upon
their perches, and they not see the enemy coming.

The next morning everybody began to call the chiff-chaff names, and to
say it was a little cheat; for a sharp sleety rain had been falling for
hours and freezing as it fell, so that all the rooks' claws were stuck
fast to the tall, top branches of the limes. As to the crocuses, they
had squeezed themselves up as small as grass, and half crept back into
the earth, while the snowdrops had shut up their houses and pulled down
the green blinds to keep the cold out, and as to the violets, why, they
crept under the dead leaves again to wait for the sun's next appearance.

No; it was not spring yet, and no one knew it better than the little
chiff-chaff, who had crept into the ivy-tod, where the great dark leaves
flopped down, and kept everything dry underneath; and there the poor
little thing kept dancing the dicky-bird's dance, and going bibbity-bob,
bibbity-bobberty, up and down, to keep himself warm, and wishing that
the great, rough, rude wind had blown somebody else out of the warm
country to cry "Spring's come; spring's come," because it happened to be
a fine bright sunshiny day.

But the little bird did not mean to do wrong, and so he stopped in the
ivy-tod and lived upon cold spider for a whole week, drinking the melted
sleet off the ivy leaves, and wishing all the time that spring had come,
for he expected no end of friends and relations over as soon as the
weather was fine enough; and, besides, he was anxious to feel the warm
weather; for he was rather a delicate little fellow, who was obliged to
go to a warm place in the winter time for the benefit of his health, and