Chapter Sixteen: Cuckoos in the Nest.

Once upon a time, there lived a little robin in a village right in the heart of the country.

Now then, this little robin lived happily in her nest with her mate, and they were content, for they had a brood of little ones to feed and care for.

Day and night, the robins toiled hard, feeding their hungry chicks with the healthiest worms they could find. The little mother groomed them carefully, often singing to them, teaching them to keep their feathers straight, their beaks polished, and taught them to keep the little nest neat and respectable.

By and by, the chicks all grew into adult robins and left the nest to find their own mates, leaving the two old ones to a quiet life.

Ah, how quiet it was, the little robin thought! Once, she'd had her little ones to keep her on her wings, but now they'd gone, and so she decided to use her spare time to fly about the village, exploring places she'd never been before and searching for pretty flower petals to cheer her little home up.

And so she lived on in her nest, with only her mate as companion.

Ah, but what is this? One fine day, she opened her eyes to a little brown chick sitting in her nest! She who had a tender heart, she took it upon herself to care for the little one, although old age had made her feeble, and searching for food was twice as difficult as before.

But what is this again? The next day she found yet another brown chick crying in her nest, its little beak open, waiting to be fed. Again, she took the little one into her heart, and cared for both as though they were her own.

And when one day she found a little brown speckled egg in the nest, nestled between the two chicks, the little robin sighed, wondering what mother was heartless enough to throw her own little ones away, and sat her tired little body upon it to hatch it.

Ah, but then, she found these little ones unruly and unmannered (unlike her own brood), for they often coughed out the worms she brought them, and liked to peck at the nest, pulling out twigs, quite ruining it.

What is a robin to do?