The Crow, who seemed convulsed with rage, seized Redy in one claw and Smaly in the other, preparatory to throwing them outside once more.
At this dangerous moment Smaly once again found his beak crying out of itself. This time he heard it say that he wished to speak to the Chief Contractor.
The Crow lifted him up by his waistband, and gazed at him with his big bright eye like a magnifying-glass, then he dropped him.
"Why, it's made of suet!" he cried in disgust.
He turned his eye upon Redy, who appeared to him much better looking with her delicate little blue beak, which had a bloom on it like a grape. Unlike the Confectioner, the Crow was perfectly well able to perceive the beaks of Smaly and Redy, for he himself was a bird, and to no one save a bird or each other were their beaks visible.
And that is why you who are reading this book, and who are not birds, cannot see their beaks either, unless you make a great effort.
The Grub was really the Doorkeeper
Redy, who saw that the moment had come to explain what they wanted, folded her hands on her apron, and repeated her little poem:
"We wish to have three girls,
Fine, sweet, pink, and good.
They shall have more pudding than they like,
And a green, green, and rosy garden."