mother-birds, when they tired of sitting on their eggs, used to get
the young one to break their shells a day before the right time by
whispering to them that now was their chance to see Peter washing or
drinking or eating. Thousands gathered round him daily to watch him
do these things, just as you watch the peacocks, and they screamed
with delight when he lifted the crusts they flung him with his hands
instead of in the usual way with the mouth. All his food was brought
to him from the Gardens at Solomon's orders by the birds. He would
not eat worms or insects (which they thought very silly of him), so
they brought him bread in their beaks. Thus, when you cry out,
"Greedy! Greedy!" to the bird that flies away with the big crust, you
know now that you ought not to do this, for he is very likely taking
it to Peter Pan.

Peter wore no night-gown now. You see, the birds were always begging
him for bits of it to line their nests with, and, being very
good-natured, he could not refuse, so by Solomon's advice he had
hidden what was left of it. But, though he was now quite naked, you
must not think that he was cold or unhappy. He was usually very happy
and gay, and the reason was that Solomon had kept his promise and
taught him many of the bird ways. To be easily pleased, for instance,
and always to be really doing something, and to think that whatever he
was doing was a thing of vast importance. Peter became very clever at
helping the birds to build their nests; soon he could build better
than a wood-pigeon, and nearly as well as a blackbird, though never
did he satisfy the finches, and he made nice little water-troughs near
the nests and dug up worms for the young ones with his fingers. He
also became very learned in bird-lore, and knew an east-wind from a
west-wind by its smell, and he could see the grass growing and hear
the insects walking about inside the tree-trunks. But the best thing