"What's in it, Muvver?" asked little Hepzebiah. You see her little tongue
didn't work just right. She never could say words with "th" in them.

"Little eggs, dear. They are white, with little dark spots and funny dark
scrawls on them as if somebody had tried to write with a bad pen."

Then Marmaduke asked:

"And is she keeping them warm?"

"Yes, so that they will hatch out. They will, very soon now."

So for a number of days in the warm weather, and in the rainy weather too,
Mother Oriole sat faithfully on her nest. Bird mothers and the mothers of
little children are always very patient. Then came one fine morning when
the sun was particularly jolly and bright, and the blossoms smelt very
sweet and were beginning to fall from the trees. The three happy children
stood under the elm and looked up at the tiny hanging nest.

They heard new noises, strange noises.

It sounded like babies.

Yes, the little Oriole babies had broken their shells and had been born at
last.

They didn't have many clothes on. But some day their feathers will be as
pretty as their father's.