"And so it went on. Each one of the birds praised its own nest and
offered to show Mother Mo-lo how to build one like it.

"But Mother Mo-lo cared little for what they said. She wasn't even
polite enough to pretend to pay attention. She was too conceited.
thought that she was handsome and knew about all there was to be known."

"Handsome?" said little Luke; "the ugly old thing! It can't be that she
had ever looked at herself."

"Oh, I don't know," said Nick-uts, "the sillier people are, the wiser
they think themselves. And it's always the ugly ones who think
themselves the most beautiful."

"Well," said little Luke, "I've seen a good deal of her, but I never
thought her handsome in the least. You know she follows the cows about
so much that we house people call her the cowbird."

"Well, at any rate," said Nick-uts, "she thought she knew a great deal
more than she really did.

"So she said to the other birds, very haughtily, 'You are all very kind,
and I am very much obliged to you. But I think I can get along without
your help. I know how to build a nest that will suit me better than any
of yours.'

"'Indeed, is that so?' cried the other birds. 'You must have learned
very quickly. Who was your teacher anyway?'

"'Oh,' said Mother Mo-lo, 'nobody taught me, but I know how just the