ery hard, but it never did come better."

"No, my boy, you are quite right; it never did come any better, but I
hoped it would when you put on its head."

"So did I, uncle, but it only seemed to make it look more ridiculous,
and it wasn't a bit like a bird."

"No, my boy, it wasn't a bit like a bird," he said weakly.

"Then why did you say it was capital, uncle?" I cried sharply.

"Well, my boy, because--because I--that is--I wanted to encourage you,
and," he cried more confidently, "it was capital for you."

"Oh, Uncle Joe, it was disgraceful, and I don't know what aunt would
have said."

"I don't know what she will say now," said my uncle ruefully, as he
gazed down at Humpty Dumpty's wreck, where it lay crushed into the dust.
"I'm afraid she'll be very cross. You see I half told her that it
would be done to-day, and I'm afraid--"

"Oh, uncle, why did you tell her that?" I said reproachfully.

"Well, my boy, you see she had been remonstrating a little about our
being out here so much, and I'm afraid I have been preparing her for a
surprise."

"And now she'll be more cross than ever, uncle," I said, picking up the
bird.

"Yes, my boy, now she'll be more cross than ever. It's a very bad job,
Nat, and I don't like to see you show such a temper as that."

"I'm very sorry, Uncle Joe," I said humbly. "I didn't mean to fly out
like that. It's just like Jem Boxhead at our school."

"Does he fly out into tempers like that, Nat?"

"Yes, uncle, _often_."

"It's a very bad job, my boy, and I never saw anything of the kind
before in you. It isn't a disease, temper isn't, or I should think you
had caught it. You couldn't catch a bad temper, you know, my boy. But
don't you think, Natty, we might still manage to put Humpty Dumpty
together again?"

"No, uncle," I said, "it's impossible;" and I know now that it was an
impossibility from the first, for my hours of experience have taught me
that I had engaged upon a hopeless task.

He took out his crimson handkerchief, and reseating himself upon the tub
began wiping his face and hands once more.

"You've made me very hot, Natty," he said. "What is to be done?"

"I don't know, uncle," I said dolefully. "But are you very cross with
me?"

"Cross, my boy? No. I was only thinking how much you are like my poor
sister, your dear mother, who would go into a temper like that sometimes
when we were boy and girl."

"Please, uncle," I said, laying my hand upon