But somehow the birds liked him.They had seen him often in the forest,dancing about like an elf after the eddying leaves,or crouched up in the hollow of some old oak tree,sharing his nuts with the squirrels.They did not mind his being ugly a bit.Why,even the nightingale herself,who sang so sweetly in the orange groves at night that sometimes the moon leaned down to listen,was not much to look at after all;and besides,he had been kind to them,and during that terribly bitter winter when there were no berries on the trees,and the ground was as hard as iron,and the wolves had come down to the very gates of the city to look for food,he had never once forgotten them,but had always given them crumbs out of his little hunch of black bread,and divided with them whatever poor breakfast he had.