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Once upon a time there were two mockingbirds. They had 

very nice voices and sang beautiful melodies. It was only 

natural for the two best singers in the woods to discover 

each other, and together they made even more interesting 

songs. The girl mockingbird was called Melody because she 

always sang beautiful songs. The boy mockingbird was 

called Method because he sang weird and funny songs. They 

loved each other. Melody and Method spoke with each 

other.

It wasn’t long before the two mockingbirds decided to get 

married and build a nest. The birds searched for a long time 

to find just the right tree. They flew into tall pines and big 

oaks and even old, hollow trees, but none of them felt right. 

Melody said, “The nest must be safe. I don’t want other birds 

to bother my babies.” Method said, “It must be hidden in the 

leaves or pine needles so the other birds can’t see it. I will 

perch high in a tall tree and keep guard.” They flew around 

for a few days and at last they finally found the right place.

Melody said, “This tree is just perfect. Not too high. Not too 

low.” “And it looks very safe,” Method said. “There is a tall 

tree where I can keep watch over you and the babies.” They 

started to work. They collected small twigs and wove them 

together into a basket. And when they were almost finished 

they found soft grasses to line the inside of the basket so that 

their eggs wouldn't fall out. At last they were finished, and 

Melody burst into a beautiful song.

“You do have a lovely voice,” Method told her. “I love it 

when you sing like that.” “I sing because I’m happy,” she 

trilled as she settled down in the nest. “Now it’s time to lay 

some eggs.” “I’ll be back soon,” Method said. “Can I bring 

you anything?” “Why, thank you. A fat, juicy worm would be 

delightful,” she said. “I like the green caterpillars.”

As soon as he flew away, Melody closed her eyes and laid a 

beautiful, little yellow egg. She looked at it in amazement 

because it was the first egg she had ever laid. “Aren’t you the 

most beautiful thing?” she said, proud of the egg. And during 

the next hour she laid two more, so now she had three 

beautiful, yellow eggs. Inside each one was a baby bird, just 

waiting to hatch. “Whew,” she said. “I’m exhausted. I need a 

drink of water.” So she flew down to the stream to get a 

drink. When Melody was done drinking, she flew back to the 

nest.

When she arrived back at the nest, she was surprised to see 

four eggs. "Maybe I counted wrong," she thought to herself. 

"I could have sworn there were three." "Method flew in with 

a huge, wriggling, juicy worm. “I hope you’re hungry,” he 

said. “This worm was so heavy I had to stop twice to rest.” 

“Oh, boy, am I,” Melody said. “I never knew having babies 

was so much work. Wanna see our eggs?” She hopped out of 

the nest so he could take a look.

“They’re very pretty,” he said with a worried expression, “but 

they’re so small. I don’t see how a bird could fit into a tiny 

egg like that.” “Well, trust me,” Melody said, preening her 

feathers. “Soon we’ll have four babies, and they will keep you 

busy catching caterpillars. By the way, would you like to sit 

on these eggs for a few minutes? We have to keep them 

warm, you know.”

“Oh, no,” he said. “I’m way too heavy. I might break one. 

You’d better do the sitting, and I’ll go out for meals.” Melody 

smiled and sang one of her beautiful melodies. The 

mockingbirds were very happy. Every day Melody took care 

of the eggs, keeping them warm and turning them over. One 

day she heard a tiny noise inside an egg. She put her ear 

close and listened. Peck. Peck. Peck. It was one of her babies 

trying to get out of the egg.

Slowly, it pecked its way around the top of the egg. When it 

had pecked all the way around in a circle, Melody saw a little 

head pop out. It didn’t have any feathers. It was all beak and 

eyes, and she jumped back in alarm. “Are you sure you’re my 

baby?” she asked. “Chirp, chirp,” the baby bird answered, 

which means, “Of course, Mama.” “I’ll name you Leroy,” she 

said.

In a few hours, all the other babies had pecked their way out of 

their shells and all were chirping and crying for food. Melody 

named them Sandy, Zoe, and Lily.

“Oh, dear,” she said. “You are all so noisy. Please be quiet.” But the 

baby birds wouldn’t be quiet. They chirped some more and grew 

louder and louder. Soon they were jumping up and down, and 

Melody got very upset.

“All right, all right, I’ll go look for bugs for you, but you'll have to be 

quiet while I’m gone. If you make any noise, something might get 

you.”

With that, all the babies grew quiet. They sat back down in the nest 

to wait for their mother to return with food.

The minute she appeared, they all jumped up and started chirping 

again. They held their little mouths open wide, and Melody fed 

each one a bite of worm. Every time they ate they were quiet for a 

minute or so before they started to chirp again. And off she flew to 

bring them food. Method helped, too, but even with both parents 

working hard, the babies still cried for more.

“Whew, I’m very tired,” Melody said after she delivered the last 

bug. “It’s getting dark, so I can’t see any bugs on the ground. Go to 

sleep and tomorrow I’ll teach you some songs.”

She had a plan. Instead of those awful, ear-splitting chirps her 

babies made, she would teach them some of her beautiful songs. 

She knew a pretty one she had learned from the Meadowlark just 

that morning.

But next morning, an interesting thing happened. At dawn, 

just as the birds were all waking up, a fire truck roared by. 

Its siren was very loud. It went, “Oooo-rooooo-oooo-roooo.”

The next thing Melody heard was four little voices crying, 

“Oooo-roooo-oooo-roooo.” They were so loud she put her 

wings over her ear. “That’s not a proper song,” she told her 

babies. Stop that noise, and I’ll go get some bugs.”

Just as she flew away, she heard a car engine start. Then she 

heard the sound the car makes when the driver doesn’t put 

on his seat-belt. “Beep-beep-beep-beep.” Sure enough, she 

could hear her babies start to make the same sound.

“These babies are driving me crazy,” she said to Method. “All 

those non-bird sounds. Why can’t they make pretty songs 

like we do?”

"Oh, they’re young. They’ll learn some more songs,” he said. 

“I’ll teach them a nice mockingbird song. 

He twittered his tail sideways and opened and closed his 

wings a few times to get their attention. He puffed out his 

chest and began to sing. It was a beautiful melody, one he 

had learned from a red-winged blackbird.

The babies listened, but as soon as Papa Bird stopped 

singing, a construction worker came up the road driving a 

bull dozer. It was in low gear, so its engine went, 

“Rrrrrrrrrrr”. He shifted gears, and it went “RRRRRRRRR.” 

Then a car passed the tractor and blew its horn to warn the 

farmer that it was coming by. The horn went “BEEEEEEP.”

Method turned back to the babies and heard them all start to 

sing at once. “Oooo-rooo-oooo-roooo, Beep-beep, 

RRRRRRR, Beep-beep-beep.” One baby had even learned the 

tune of a ringing telephone, and another made the sound of a 

helicopter.

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