Part 8 (1/2)

”I should like to go to bed,” said Fred.

”There's an idle-back,” said Harry; ”I shouldn't I should like to take my clothes off, and lie down under a fountain, and let all the nice cool water trickle and splash all over me. Poof! ain't it hot?”

”I know what I should like to do,” said Philip; ”I should like to sit right up there on the top of the cedar, and rock--rock, rock--rock, backwards and forwards--looking up at the blue sky, and thinking I was a soft, downy bird.”

”Ho! ho! ho!” said Harry. ”He'd look like an old c.o.c.k jackdaw when he's moulting. Ha! ha! ha! what an old stupid!”

”I don't care,” said Philip; ”I know it would be nice; wouldn't it, Fred?”

”Well, but you couldn't sit there; the boughs would break, and you'd come down,” said Fred. ”But what makes all that thick bunch of hay and rags up there? Why, it's a nest, isn't it?”

”So it is,” said Harry; ”why, I never saw that before. Let's get up and get it. There's sure to be eggs.”

”I shan't,” said Phil; ”it's too hot.”

”What a lazy old chap you are, Phil,” said his brother. ”It's a tree-sparrow's nest, and we haven't got a single egg. I mean to go.”

Saying which Master Harry stripped off his blouse, threw down his cap, and commenced operations.

”Don't go, you'll fall,” said Fred; ”it's ever so high up, and the boughs won't bear you.”

”Pooh!” said Harry, ”I can do it;” and running along under the great branches that stretched away, drooping towards the ground, he gave a spring, and caught a bough, turned up his heels, and so made his way, hanging head downwards, to the trunk after the same fas.h.i.+on as he did on the day of the fis.h.i.+ng excursion. On reaching the trunk, he scaled up from bough to bough, almost as actively as a monkey, till at last he reached the branch which bore the nest, where he stooped puzzled, for Mrs and Mr Pa.s.ser must have had an eye to safety when they constructed their nest; for unless Master Harry had possessed the activity and lightness of body of the old c.o.c.k jackdaw he was so lately talking about, there was no chance of his getting any of the tree-sparrow's eggs for his collection.

”Well, why don't you throw the nest down?” said Philip, jeeringly.

”'Cos I can't,” said Harry. ”Why don't you come and sit up here, and look at the blue sky, and then perhaps you could? I'm not going on a thin branch that wouldn't bear a cat.”

Whereupon down came Master Harry, all over green, and with the cedar spines sticking through his s.h.i.+rt, in his hair, and down his back, and making him s.h.i.+ft and shuffle about in a most uncomfortable manner.

”I say,” said Harry, ”let's go off to the wood.”

”Papa wouldn't like it,” said Philip; ”and besides, we are going to-morrow.”

”Oh! ah! and then perhaps it will rain. Do let's go; we could get the eggs, and Papa would be so pleased.”

”I don't think he would,” said Fred. ”My Papa would not if I went when he told me not.”

”But he didn't tell us not,” said Harry; ”and I know he would like the eggs. I'll go.”

”That's right,” said Philip, ”but I'll go and tell Mamma we are going.”

”No, don't,” said Harry; ”let's tell her when we come back, because she might say you had better not go.”

”I shan't go,” said Fred, stoutly.

”There's a sneak,” said Harry. ”Why, we could show you all sorts of things. There's the fox's cave; and the waterfall; and the old hollow tree that holds ten people; and the magpies' nests; and owls, and wood-pigeons, and turtle-doves.”

”And snakes,” said Philip.

”Yes,” said Harry; ”and snakes and adders, and the dark tarn where the great eels are. But never mind, you can stop; can't he, Phil? we don't want him. We'll take d.i.c.k, and get some rats as we go along. I say, Fred, you can stay in d.i.c.k's kennel, and we'll put the collar round your neck.”