“I'm sorry to hear it,” declared Sunshine. “She made us a lot of trouble last year. But we fooled her.”
“How did you fool her?” asked Peter.
Sunshine paused to pick a tiny worm from a leaf. “Well,” said he, “she found our nest just after we had finished it and before Mrs. Sunshine had had a chance to lay an egg. Of course you know what she did.”
“I can guess,” replied Peter. “She laid one of her own eggs in your nest.”
Sunshine stopped to pick two or three more worms from the leaves. “Yes,” said he. “She did just that, the lazy good-for-nothing creature! But it didn't do her a bit of good, not a bit. That egg never hatched. We fooled her and that's what we'll do again if she repeats that trick this year.”
“What did you do, throw that egg out?” asked Peter.
“No,” replied Sunshine. “Our nest was too deep for us to get that egg out. We just made a second bottom in our nest right over that egg and built the sides of the nest a little higher. Then we took good care that she didn't have a chance to lay another egg in there.”
“Then you had a regular two-story nest, didn't you?” cried Peter, opening his eyes very wide.
Sunshine nodded. “Yes, sir,” said he, “and it was a mighty fine nest, if I do say it. If there's anything Mrs. Sunshine and I pride ourselves on it is our nest. There are no babies who have a softer, cozier home than ours.”
“What do you make your nest of?” asked Peter.