was Put out to Nurse 
poor Mrs. Hedge-sparrow’s own little 
children, and would push himself to the 
front whenever either of them came to 
the nest with any food; and so he grew 
stronger and stronger, and bigger than 
ever. 
The curious thing was that neither 
of the hedge-sparrows noticed it. They 
were really so proud of this great 
fine baby of theirs, as they thought, that 
whenever they had time to talk with 
their neighbours they were always boast- 
ing how big and strong he was, how 
his feathers were coming already, and 
what an appetite he had ; and away they 
would go and look for more caterpillars, 
and all the fattest ones went to the 
greedy cuckoo. The selfish little monster 
soon grew so fat and big that there was 
hardly room enough in the nest for all 
iy a8 
