to walk. He mentioned this to his mate and when
he told her that the Eggs would probably conduct
themselves in the same way after they were fledged
she was quite comforted and even became eagerly
interested and derived great pleasure from watching
the boy over the edge of her nest -- though she
always thought that the Eggs would be much cleverer
and learn more quickly. But then she said
indulgently that humans were always more clumsy
and slow than Eggs and most of them never
seemed really to learn to fly at all. You never
met them in the air or on tree-tops.

After a while the boy began to move about as
the others did, but all three of the children at
times did unusual things. They would stand
under the trees and move their arms and legs and
heads about in a way which was neither walking
nor running nor sitting down. They went through
these movements at intervals every day and the
robin was never able to explain to his mate what
they were doing or trying to do. He could only
say that he was sure that the Eggs would never
flap about in such a manner; but as the boy who
could speak robin so fluently was doing the thing
with them, birds could be quite sure that the actions
were not of a dangerous nature. Of course
neither the robin nor his mate had ever heard of
the champion wrestler, Bob Haworth, and his

[[331]]

p330 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p331w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p332

v?