The Goat and Her Kid | Page 2

scramble and climb over each other, especially
when their mother brings them food in her bill. There is, of course, not
enough food for all of them at once, but they all try to get it at once,
and some of them are naughty and greedy, and try to get a second
morsel before their brothers and sisters have had any at all. Now, the
careful mother-bird knows this very well, and she, therefore, divides
everything among them, so that each has a bit in turn, and while she
feeds them she begs the rest to be as patient as they can, and not flutter,
and chirrup, and gape so widely, and above all things, to mind they do
not tumble, or push each other, over the edge of the nest.
It happened one day that this very accident occurred in a
hedge-sparrow's nest which had been built in the largest branch of a
hawthorn-tree. This tree grew in the middle of a hedge that went round
a large field, where there were at this time a number of haymakers, all
very busy with the hay. While some were tossing the hay about in order
to spread it out in the sun and dry it, others were raking up the hay that
was already dry enough, and piling it up into haycocks. Men and
women, and boys and girls too, were all at work in this way, and
singing in the sun as they tossed the hay with forks, or raked it up with
large wooden rakes. When the hay was thus moved about on the field, a
frog sometimes jumped up, and went silently leaping away towards the
hedge; and sometimes a field-mouse sprang out from the short grass,
with a loud squeak, and ran off to hide himself in the hedge, squeaking
all the way, not because he was in the least hurt, but because he had

waked in a great fright.
At the same time that all this was going on, the sparrow, whose nest
was in the hawthorn-tree, had brought a few seeds and a morsel of crust
to her young ones. The seed she distributed with ease, but the morsel of
crust was rather hard, and required her to pinch and peck it a good deal
with her bill before it could be soft enough for the young birds. The
young ones, however, were all so anxious to be first to receive the crust
the moment it was ready, that they all began to make a loud chirruping,
and scrambling, and pushing, and fluttering, and trampling, and
climbing over each other, till at last two of them were on the very edge
of the nest, and had each got hold of the crust. But the mother-bird did
not approve of such rudeness, so she took it away from them in her
own bill just as the two were beginning to pull with all their might,
standing on opposite sides of the nest. They could not recover
themselves, but over they went, fluttering down into the tree. One fell
into the next bough below, but the other went fluttering into the hedge
under the tree. The mother helped the nearest one up again into the nest,
by showing it how to hop and fly from branch to branch; the other,
however, was too low down, so there sat the unfortunate little fellow all
alone upon a twig, chirruping and looking up in vain at his lost nest.
[Illustration]
This unlucky nestling had not long sat in this way before some boys,
who had brought the haymakers their dinners, and were returning home,
saw him in the hedge, and immediately began to try to catch him. But
though he could not fly, he could flutter, and if he was not able to run,
at least he could hop; so every time one of the boys got near to him, the
nestling scrambled on to the next bough, and thus from bough to bough
all along the hedge. If the boys had only known how dreadfully
frightened the poor little bird was, they never could have been so cruel
as to hunt him in this way. They did not know this, however, and only
thought of catching him. At last he had got to the end of the hedge, and
then went fluttering down upon the field with the boys after him. They
soon were so close to him, as he hopped and fluttered along the short
grass, that the poor little fellow felt their hands would presently be

upon him, and as a last chance of escape, he crept and hid himself
under a wisp of hay.
Just at that moment there came into the field Charles Turner, with his
sister Fanny, and their maid, each having a little