A NEST TO LE!

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 87, 12 April 1930, Page 18

A NEST TO LE!

Mr. and Mrs. Edward Joseph Sparrow sat upon a gum tree in Karoro Park. They were very happy little birds and were just planning .where they should build their nest. "Why not this one?" suggested Mrs. Sparrow, but father found some fault with it just as he had wltn every other one she had set her heart upon. "Too low," lie grumbled, as he snapped up a tiny insect that was in his way. Mother Bird signed. Nothing would please her husband, so she 2ecided to find a nesting-place all by herself. . , , As she was about to fly off, she spied a wee fairy swinging on a gum leaf. Two tears rolled down the fairy's nose, and she was sobbing bitterly. "I have to leave my lovely old gum tree home," she cried, when kind Mrs. Sparrow asked the reason for her tears. '"I have to nurse old Granny Thrush, she's broken her leg." The bird wished to see a fairy's home, so she asked where it could be found. "See up in yonder branch, that old nest. I have lived there for ages," said the fair)', "and the trouble is I cannot find a suitable person to keep it tidy and look after it for me. I know it's nesting time. I suppose I must put an advertisement in the Fairy Newspaper;" A thought flashed through Mrs. Bird's mind. Here was a comfortable nest, and in the very tree she had desired. "Please will you let me have your nest for this season?" she asked the still sobbing fairy. "With pleasure," was the reply, and the tears instantly vanished. Just then old Father Bird flew back. "I've found rather a nice place down by the river," he announced. "Of course it will be rather damp for the little ones, but we shall just have to be careful." But he was very surprised when his wife dismissed this announcement with the news that they would have their future home in "this very tree.' He was rather peeved at first, but only because she had got her own way. Afterwards he was quite willing to go up and look at the nest, and willingly flew away to gather some straws to build up a fallen part of it. During that Spring, the mother bird patiently hatched out tour dear hungry little, birds, and their busy father had all his time taken up in popping worms into their big gaping mouths. When the little fairy returned from nursing .Granny Thrush, the happy little birds had flown away with their family, but they left a note thanking her for the loan of the nest. , Lyall Bay.