BEFORE BREAKFAST. 59 
Up jumped little Mrs. Humming-bird and snatched a 
dewdrop from the cup of a morning-glory on the 
trellis. “I prefer to drink distilled water,” she said, 
wiping her mouth. 
“T like to drink from the hydrant,” said Madam 
Linnet. “Any water is good enough for me.” Then 
she tilted herself on the top of the hydrant and swal- 
lowed three drops as they fell from the pipe. 
“What makes you always turn a somersault on the 
top of the hydrant?” asked Mrs. Towhee. ‘It doesn't 
look polite to stoop over like that, and drink with your 
head down.” 
“T don’t drink with my mouth on the edge of the 
cup, like some people I know,” she said in reply to Mrs. 
Towhee. “Besides, it doesn’t wet my face’ when the 
drops fall right into my mouth like this. I like to turn 
upside down, too; it is good exercise for the muscles. 
What’s the use of a bird always being so proper?” 
“Tut, tut!” said Mrs. Sparrow, “see how I drink.” 
And she stood on the edge of the puddle under the 
hydrant, and laid her breast in the water, and drank, 
and drank, wetting her face and throat all over. “I’m 
not afraid of a wetting,” she said. 
“What’s all this talk about drinking?” asked old 
Mr. Butcher-bird, coming down on the party with a 
swoop of his wings that scared all the other birds back 
to the trees. ‘Don’t run away,” he said kindly. 
“I’ve had my breakfast.” Then he began to pull tat- 
ters of lizard meat out of his bill. 
