The two children ran all the way home. Their father was in the living room watching a football game on television. Robin and Andy went into the dining room. The door of the breakfront was open about two inches. The little silver birds were gone.

“What will Mother say?” Robin said.

“What would she say if she saw the live birds?” Andy answered. “It’s better this way.”

Robin went into the kitchen. The silver birds were sitting on the table. The one who had been a salt shaker looked up and gave a hungry little cheep.

Robin remembered that her mother kept a big bag of birdseed in the basement laundry room. She used it to fill the bird feeder in the back yard. Robin found a pie pan in one of the drawers of the sink cabinet. Then she went down the back stairs to get some seed.

When she came back to the kitchen Andy had filled the sink with water. The silver birds were splashing in it.

Robin put the pan of birdseed in the middle of the kitchen table. “Here, Salt. Here, Pepper,” she called.

Salt hopped onto the sink top and shook himself like a puppy dog. Then he flew to the table to peck at the birdseed. Pepper took time to smooth her feathers with her beak before she joined the other bird. Both birds dropped the shells from the seed all over the table and the floor.

Andy watched them. “They’re a messy pair,” he said. “We’ll have to sweep the room when they’re finished.”

Robin expected the birds to go back into the breakfront when they were done with their meal. Instead they flew up into the air and winged their way through the house to the front hall. Then they flew upstairs.

“What do you suppose they’re up to?” Robin said.

Andy ran up the stairs after the birds. Robin followed him. She found her brother in the upstairs hall. He was moving his head round and round as he watched the birds fly from room to room. “They keep going back to your room, Rob.”

Robin went into her bedroom. She had left the door of her closet open. The birds flew into the closet. Robin’s Easter basket was in the corner of the high shelf in the closet. There was still some purple Easter grass left from last year in the basket.

Salt and Pepper were excited. They flew around picking bits of fluff off the blankets.

“What do they want that stuff for?” Robin asked.

“Take a look in the closet, Rob,” Andy said. “Those crazy birds are building a nest in your Easter basket.”