On them rested the brush and branches.

These seemed to have been tossed on almost aimlessly.
There was no attempt at thatching.

And I must confess that the roof leaked miserably in a heavy rain.
But the Chatterer.

He made home-life a burden for both my mother and me--and by home-life I mean, not the leaky nest in the tree, but the group-life of the three of us.

He was most malicious in his persecution of me.