THE PIGEON
I am shaking with excitement!

THE WHITE HEN
You are shaking down the roof!

THE PIGEON
You can't think how we admire him!

THE WHITE HEN
Oh, everyone admires him!

THE PIGEON
And I promised my missis to tell her what he is like!

THE WHITE HEN
[_Quietly pecking._] Oh, he's a fine fellow, no doubt
of that!

THE PIGEON
We can hear him crowing from our dove-cote. The One he is whose song is
more an ornament to the landscape than the white hamlet to the hill! The
One he is whose cry pierces the blue horizon like a gold-threaded needle
stitching the hill-tops to the sky! The Cock he is! When you would
praise him, call him the Cock!

THE BLACKBIRD
[_Hopping up and down in his cage._] Tick-tock!--who sets all hearts
a-beating, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock!