30 THE HISTORY OF TIP-TOP. 



agreed that it was as excellent gingerbread as if old Mother 

 Cricket herself had made it. 



"Take care, Charlie," said his mamma; "we do not know 

 enough to feed young birds. We must leave it to their 

 papa and mamma, who probably started out bright and 

 early in the morning to get breakfast for them." 



Sure enough, while they were speaking, back came Mr. 

 and Mrs. Robin, whirring through the green shadows of 

 the apple-tree ; and thereupon all the five little red mouths 

 flew open, and the birds put something into each. 



It was great amusement, after this, to watch the daily 

 feeding of the little birds, and to observe how, when not 

 feeding them, the mother sat brooding on the nest, warm- 

 ing them under her soft wings, while the father-bird sat on 

 the tip-top bough of the apple-tree and sang to them. In 

 time they grew and grew, and, instead of a nest full of 

 little red mouths, there was a nest full of little, fat, speckled 

 robins, with round, bright, cunning eyes, just like their 

 parents ; and the children began to talk together about 

 their birds. 



"I 'm going to give my robin a name," said Mary. "I 

 call him Brown-Eyes." 



"And I call mine Tip-Top," said Jamie, "because I 

 know he '11 be a tip-top bird." 



"And I call mine singer," said Alice. 



"I 'all mine Toddy," said little Toddlie, who would not 

 be behindhand in anything that was going on. 



