His oddities tickled them every day , as if they were quite new , though it was really the birds that were new . They came out of the eggs daily , and laughed at him at once ; then off they soon flew to be humans , and other birds came out of other eggs ; and so it went on for ever . The crafty mother-birds , when they tired of sitting on their eggs , used to get the young ones to break their shells a day before the right time by whispering to them that now was their chance to see Peter washing or drinking or eating . Thousands gathered round him daily to watch him do these things , just as you watch the peacocks , and they screamed with delight when he lifted the crusts they flung him with his hands instead of in the usual way with the mouth . All his food was brought to him from the Gardens at Solomon 's orders by the birds . He would not eat worms or insects -LRB- which they thought very silly of him -RRB- , so they brought him bread in their beaks . Thus , when you cry out , ` Greedy ! Greedy ! ' to the bird that flies away with the big crust , you know now that you ought not to do this , for he is very likely taking it to Peter Pan . -LSB- Illustration : The birds on the island never got used to him . His oddities tickled them every day -RSB- Peter wore no nightgown now . You see , the birds were always begging him for bits of it to line their nests with , and , being very good-natured , he could not refuse , so by Solomon 's advice he had hidden what was left of it . But , though he was now quite naked , you must not think that he was cold or unhappy . He was usually very happy and gay , and the reason was that Solomon had kept his promise and taught him many of the bird ways . To be easily pleased , for instance , and always to be really doing something , and to think that whatever he was doing was a thing of vast importance . Peter became very clever at helping the birds to build their nests ; soon he could build better than a wood-pigeon , and nearly as well as a blackbird , though never did he satisfy the finches , and he made nice little water-troughs near the nests and dug up worms for the young ones with his fingers . He also became very learned in bird-lore , and knew an east wind from a west wind by its smell , and he could see the grass growing and hear the insects walking about inside the tree-trunks . But the best thing Solomon had done was to teach him to have a glad heart . All birds have glad hearts unless you rob their nests , and so , as they were the only kind of heart Solomon knew about , it was easy to him to teach Peter how to have one . -LSB- Illustration : Peter screamed out , ` Do it again ! '
and with great good-nature they did it several times -RSB- XXXXX 's heart was so glad that he felt he must sing all day long , just as the birds sing for joy , but , being partly human , he needed an instrument , so he made a pipe of reeds , and he used to sit by the shore of the island of an evening , practising the sough of the wind and the ripple of the water , and catching handfuls of the shine of the moon , and he put them all in his pipe and played them so beautifully that even the birds were deceived , and they would say to each other , ` Was that a fish leaping in the water or was it Peter playing leaping fish on his pipe ? '
Pan Peter Solomon beaks bird-lore crusts daily day left wood-pigeon