Disclaimer: I am neither Hans Christian Andersen nor Arne Ader (who took the cover image).

"Do you mean to say," said a female hedge-sparrow, "that some swan laid her egg in a duck's nest, and then just swam away and let her think it was her own?"

"So it seems," said her cuckoo neighbor.

The hedge-sparrow peeped censoriously. "Such dissolute times we live in," she said. "Really, what sort of irresponsible scoundrel would think of deceiving a fellow hen that way?"

"Shameful," the cuckoo agreed solemnly. "Incidentally, how is your own brood coming along?"

"Oh, wonderfully," said the hedge-sparrow. "The center egg, especially; it's nearly twice as big now as any I've ever laid."

"Splendid."