THE HISTORY OF TIP-TOP. 2 7 



First, there were Alice and Mary, bright-eyed, laughing lit- 

 tle girls, of seven and eight years, and then came stout little 

 Jamie, and Charlie, and finally little Puss, whose real name 

 was Ellen, but who was called Puss, and Pussy, and Birdie, 

 and Toddlie, and any other pet name that came to mind. 



Now it used to happen, every morning, that the five little 

 heads would be peeping out of the window, together, into 

 the flowery boughs of the apple-tree ; and the reason was 

 this. A pair of robins had built a very pretty, smooth-lined 

 nest in a fork of the limb that came directly under the win- 

 dowj and the building of this nest had been superintended, 

 day by day, by the five pairs of bright eyes of these five 

 children. The robins at first had been rather shy of this 

 inspection ; but, as they got better acquainted, they seemed 

 to think no more of the little curly heads in the window, 

 than of the pink blossoms about them, or the daisies and 

 buttercups at the foot of the tree. 



All the little hands were forward to help ; some threw 

 out flossy bits of cotton, for which, we grieve to say, 

 Charlie had cut a hole in the crib quilt, and some threw 

 out bits of thread and yarn, and Allie ravelled out a con- 

 siderable piece from one of her garters, which she threw out 

 as a contribution ; and they exulted in seeing the skill with 

 which the little builders wove everything in. " Little birds, 

 little birds," they would say, "you shall be kept warm, for 

 we have given you cotton out of our crib quilt, and yarn 



