his crutch, and tickled the cowbird so that she
sneezed, and had to fly away without doing any harm. And Uncle Wiggily
called after her that she ought to be ashamed of herself not to build her
own nests. And I guess that cowbird was ashamed, but I'm not sure. Anyhow
she came back a little later and gathered up her eggs off the ground, and
flew away with them, and what she did with them I'll tell you; oh, just as
soon as you like.

The bedtime story then will be about Uncle Wiggily and the tailor
bird--that is, if the needle and thread don't dance up and down on the pin
cushion, and make it full of holes so the sawdust stuffing comes out and
tickles the baby's pink toes.

STORY XXXI

UNCLE WIGGILY AND THE TAILOR BIRD

After Uncle Wiggily and the pussy had helped the robin get the cowbird's
eggs out of her nest, as I told you in the story before this, the rabbit
and the kittie stayed in the woods a little while talking to the mamma
bird.

"I should like to see the little robins hatch out of the eggs," said the
pussy, as she frisked her tail about and smoothed out her fur.

"So should I," added Uncle Wiggily.

"I will gladly let you see my little birdies hatch," spoke the robin, "but
it will take nearly a week yet, and you will have to wait."

"Oh, I can't wait as long as that," went on the rabbit. "I must be off to
seek my fortune."

"Yes, and I must go and find my clothespin house," said the pussy.

So they said good-by to the mamma robin, and away the pussy and Uncle
Wiggily went, over the hills and down the dales through the woods and over
little brooks.

Pretty soon they came to a place in the woods where there were a whole
lot of flowers nodding their heads in the wind, and it was such a pretty
place that Uncle Wiggily and the pussy stayed there a little while. And in
about a minute they heard something flying through the bushes and out flew
that same cowbird, and she laughed just as hard as she could laugh, as she
passed along.

"Somebody is going to be surprised!" cried the cowbird and she fluttered
her wings at the rabbit and the kittie, and then she hid herself off in
the woods.

"I wonder what she means?" asked the pussy.

"I'm sure I don't know," replied the rabbit. "But did you notice that she
didn't have her eggs with her?"

"Sure enough!" exclaimed the pussy. "She must have left them in some other
bird's nest."

"Well, we had better keep on, for it is getting late," spoke Uncle