for that looks much better."
  "What kind of creatures are those little grey ones that runabout behind us?" asked an old pigeon, with red and green in her eyes."Little grey ones! Little grey ones!" she cried.
  "They are sparrows, and good creatures. We have always had thereputation of being pious, so we will allow them to pick up the cornwith us; they don't interrupt our talk, and they scrape so prettilywhen they bow."
  Indeed they were continually making three foot-scrapings withthe left foot and also said "Peep!" By this means they recognised eachother, for they were the sparrows from the nest on the burned house.
  "Here is excellent fare!" said the sparrow. The pigeons struttedround one another, puffed out their chests mightily, and had their ownprivate views and opinions.
  "Do you see that pouter pigeon?" said one to the other. "Do yousee how she swallows the peas? She eats too many, and the best onestoo. Curoo! Curoo! How she lifts her crest, the ugly, spitefulcreature! Curoo! Curoo!" And the eyes of all sparkled with malice."Stand in groups! Stand in groups! Little grey ones, little grey ones!Curoo, curoo, curoo!"
  So their chatter ran on, and so it will run on for thousands ofyears. The sparrows ate lustily; they listened attentively, and evenstood in the ranks with the others, but it did not suit them at all.They were full, and so they left the pigeons, exchanging opinionsabout them, slipped in under the garden palings, and when they foundthe door leading into the house open, one of them, who was more thanfull, and therefore felt brave, hopped on to the threshold. "Peep!"said he; "I may venture that."
  "Peep!" said the other; "so may I, and something more too!" and hehopped into the room. No one was there; the third sparrow, seeingthis, flew still farther into the room, exclaiming, "All or nothing!It is a curious man's nest all the same; and what have they put uphere? What is it?"
  Close to the sparrows the roses were blooming; they were reflectedin the water, and the charred beams leaned against the overhangingchimney. "Do tell me what this is. How comes this in a room at theHall?" And all three sparrows wanted to fly over the roses and thechimney, but flew against a flat wall. It was all a picture, a greatsplendid picture, which the artist had painted from a sketch.
  "Peep!" said the sparrows, "it's nothing. It only looks likesomething. Peep! that is 'the beautiful.' Do you understand it? Idon't."
  And they flew away, for some people came into the room.
  Days and years went by. The pigeons had often cooed, not to saygrowled- the spiteful creatures; the sparrows had been frozen inwinter and had lived merrily in summer: they were all betrothed, ormarried, or whatever you like to call it. They had little ones, and ofcourse each one thought his own the handsomest and cleverest; one flewthis way, another that, and when they met they recognised each otherby their "Peep!" and the three scrapes with the left foot. Theeldest had remained an old maid and had no nest nor young ones. It washer pet idea to see a great city, so she flew to Copenhagen.
  There was a large house painted in many gay colours standing closeto the castle and the canal, upon which latter were to be seen manyships laden with apples and pottery. The windows of the house werebroader at the bottom than at the top, and when the sparrows lookedthrough them, every room appeared to them like a tulip with thebrightest colours and shades. But in the middle of the tulip stoodwhite men, made of marble; a few were of plaster; still, looked atwith sparrows' eyes, that comes to the same thing. Up on the roofstood a metal chariot drawn by metal horses, and the goddess ofVictory, also of metal, was driving. It was Thorwaldsen's Museum.
  "How it shines!