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154 THE RAT 



first, and birds behind that. Work backwards if 

 you want to reach the beginning. Well, as I w^as 

 saying, there is no doubt that birds do enjoy the 

 labour of constructing a dwelling-place. I have 

 seen Jenny Wren's husband very hard at work 

 making a nest for himself — and a pretty difficult 

 nest it is to build, too, I fancy — while his wife had 

 chosen a different situation entirely. They had 

 evidently had a bit of a quarrel, and, like wise little 

 folks, had each gone their own way. But when it 

 came to be a question of which nest was to be 

 the real home, / know where the eggs were laid, 

 because I happened to get the young ones for my 

 dinner. I could not possibly have got them if 

 they had been in his house, so I think that we may 

 act as umpires — though it is a dangerous thing to 

 interfere between husband and wife — and say that 

 he chose the better place ; but I very much doubt 

 whether he knew that when he began to build. 

 My own idea is that he only wanted something to 

 do. He had quarrelled, and he was not going to 

 confess himself in the wrong ; but he found the 

 time to hang very heavily on his hands without his 

 little wife, so he set to work to collect dead leaves 

 and moss, and made up his mind to build a really 

 fine nest for himself, partly because he honestly 



