There came to our fields a pair of birds that had never built a nest nor
seen a winter. How beautiful was everything! The fields were full of
flowers and the grass was growing tall, and the bees were humming
everywhere. Then one of the birds began singing, and the other bird
said: "Who told you to sing?" And he answered: "The flowers told me, and
the bees told me, and the winds and leaves told me, and the blue sky
told me, and you told me to sing." Then his mate answered: "When did I
tell you to sing?" And he said: "Every time you brought in tender grass
for the nest, and every time your soft wings fluttered off again for
hair and feathers to line the nest." Then his mate said: "What are you
singing about?" And he answered: "I am singing about everything and
nothing. It is because I am so happy that I sing."

By and by five little speckled eggs were in the nest, and his mate said:
"Is there anything in all the world as pretty as my eggs?" Then they
both looked down on some people that were passing by and pitied them
because they were not birds.

In a week or two, one day, when the father bird came home, the mother
bird said: "Oh, what do you think has happened?" "What?" "One of my eggs
has been peeping and moving!" Pretty soon another egg moved under her
feathers, and then another and another, till five little birds were
hatched! Now the father bird sang louder and louder than ever. The
mother bird, too, wanted to sing, but she had no time, and she turned
her song into work. So hungry were these little birds that it kept both
parents busy feeding them. Away each one flew. The moment the little
birds heard their wings fluttering among the leaves, five little yellow
mouths flew open wide, so that nothing could be seen but five yellow
mouths!