Shelley 's boat , when opened , completely puzzled Solomon , and he took counsel of his assistants , who having walked over it twice , first with their toes pointed out , and then with their toes pointed in , decided that it came from some greedy person who wanted five . They thought this because there was a large five printed on it . `` Preposterous ! '' cried Solomon in a rage , and he presented it to Peter ; anything useless which drifted upon the island was usually given to Peter as a play-thing . But he did not play with his precious bank-note , for he knew what it was at once , having been very observant during the week when he was an ordinary boy . With so much money , he reflected , he could surely at last contrive to reach the Gardens , and he considered all the possible ways , and decided -LRB- wisely , I think -RRB- to choose the best way . But , first , he had to tell the birds of the value of Shelley 's boat ; and though they were too honest to demand it back , he saw that they were galled , and they cast such black looks at Solomon , who was rather vain of his cleverness , that he flew away to the end of the island , and sat there very depressed with his head buried in his wings . Now Peter knew that unless Solomon was on your side , you never got anything done for you in the island , so he followed him and tried to hearten him . Nor was this all that Peter did to pin the powerful old fellow 's good will . You must know that Solomon had no intention of remaining in office all his life . He looked forward to retiring by-and-by , and devoting his green old age to a life of pleasure on a certain yew-stump in the Figs which had taken his fancy , and for years he had been quietly filling his stocking . It was a stocking belonging to some bathing person which had been cast upon the island , and at the time I speak of it contained a hundred and eighty crumbs , thirty-four nuts , sixteen crusts , a pen-wiper and a bootlace . When his stocking was full , Solomon calculated that he would be able to retire on a competency . Peter now gave him a pound . He cut it off his bank-note with a sharp stick . This made Solomon his friend for ever , and after the two had consulted together they called a meeting of the thrushes . You will see presently why thrushes only were invited . The scheme to be put before them was really Peter 's , but Solomon did most of the talking , because he soon became irritable if other people talked . He began by saying that he had been much impressed by the superior ingenuity shown by the thrushes in nest-building , and this put them into good-humour at once , as it was meant to do ; for all the quarrels between birds are about the best way of building nests . Other birds , said Solomon , omitted to line their nests with mud , and as a result they did not hold water .
Here he cocked his head as if he had used an unanswerable argument ; but , unfortunately , a Mrs. Finch had come to the meeting uninvited , and she squeaked out , `` We do n't build nests to hold water , but to hold eggs , '' and then the XXXXX stopped cheering , and Solomon was so perplexed that he took several sips of water .
Gardens Shelley Solomon bank-note crusts first good-humour nest-building thrushes years