ving hay in the fields now."

After this speech the children naturally lost very little time in
running to the cow-house. There, lying in a dark corner, were several
coils of rope of unequal length, but all most reassuringly thick. They
chose out two pieces that seemed as if they had been made on purpose to
form the sides of a rope-ladder, and carried them off in triumph to the
Eagle's Nest, feeling like a successful party of marauding barons in
the middle ages. Just as they had hidden the rope in a fork of the
beech-tree the bell for tea rang, and work was over for that afternoon.
In warm weather, when the children strayed far from the house, Mrs.
West had a large bell rung outside the door at meal-times, so there was
really no excuse for not coming in. However, even with this
precaution, Miss Thompson had so frequently to wait that she had lately
made a rule to the effect that a quarter of an hour after the right
time for tea to begin the cake and jam should be sent out of the room,
and only bread and butter left. The children had been conspicuously
more inclined to punctuality since this rule was made.

Everything connected with the Eagle's Nest took much more time and
labour than was ever expected. It sounds an easy thing enough to make
a rope-ladder when once the materials have been collected. But even
with Barton's ropes, and Nurse's best ball of string, which John had
quietly brought away in his pocket, it was no simple matter. After
many days spent in faithfully following out all the directions given
for the manufacture of rope-ladders in various books of adventures, the
children produced something up which an intrepid traveller might
possibly have crawled in preference to being eaten by a very hungry
lion. With great pride they tied the upper ends of the two ropes
firmly to a bough just above the Eagle's Nest. That part of the job
was very effectually done. The children could be trusted to tie secure
knots, they had such constant practice.

"Hurrah! Finished at last!" cried Madge, giving the ropes a severe
jerk to test their firmness. "And now, who shall be the first to mount
up our new ladder?"

"Let me!" cried a strange voice.

The children started so violently that they almost fell out of the
Eagle's Nest. They looked all round in bewilderment, and at last,
directly under the beech-tree, on the other side of the wall, they saw
a boy watching them intently.

"If you will drop the end of t