wouldn't take long to build them up 
again, and they worked hard every 
morning to get it done, and then began 
to hunt about for feathers for their 
feather-bed. But one day, when it was 
almost ready for eggs, the window 
opened, and a red, angry face appeared, 
then an arm flourishing a broom. The 
next moment it went crash through 
their beautiful new nest, on which they 
had laboured so happily and with such 
hopes. Soon they saw the whole of 
it demolished and lying in fragments 
on the ground below. 
The woman who now lived there was 
too ignorant to see the beauty of the 
little industrious couple, or to recognize 
the good services they were doing by 
catching gnats and flies and all the 
winged pests of summer. Her ears were 
266 
