n started off across the
fields immediately after their dinner. For once none of them lingered
to pick buttercups, or even hunt the pigs.

"First we make the floor," said Madge, who was in a very good humour at
being so undoubtedly leader of the expedition. "Until that is made we
have nothing to stand on while we are putting up the roof."

This was unquestionably true; besides, everybody felt that though a
very fairly satisfactory nest could be imagined open to the sky, some
sort of floor was an absolute necessity in a tree-house.

"But where shall we get the boards and nails from?" asked John,
thinking of the neat planks he had so often counted in the nursery.

"Boards and nails!" laughed Madge. "Do you think it's going to be
exactly like the stupid sort of houses we are used to? Perhaps you
expect to see a brown carpet with red spots, like the one in the
schoolroom?"

"Of course not! Don't be so silly!" cried John angrily. But all the
same, it must be confessed he could not imagine a house very unlike
Beechgrove.

"You see, this will be more of a nest," interposed Betty; "so it ought
to be made of sticks."

"That's it! Follow me and I will show you where to get some." And
Madge set off running across the field, closely pursued by the two
others.

It was not very difficult to guess where the sticks were to be found.
Every winter the wind had a delightful way of blowing down some large
boughs on the farm, and these used to be cut up and stacked together
until wanted for various purposes. The children regarded these
windfalls as expressly designed for their convenience and amusement.
They climbed on the heavier logs, which were piled into temptingly
irregular mountains several feet high; and of the smaller sticks they
made every kind of defensive weapon.

Madge led the way straight to one of these wood-piles. After much
study she chose several small branches, and all three children,
producing knives out of their pockets, set to work hacking off
unnecessary twigs. The twigs being extremely tough and the knives not
at all sharp, this process took a long time, and the afternoon seemed
to be going by without their even coming in sight of Eagle's Nest.

"It's really no good trying to tidy up these sticks here!" Madge cried
at last in despair. "Let us each carry as many branches as we can to
the Eagle's Nest, and we can trim them into shape there when we see
exactly what we want."

This seemed a part