nodded sadly.

"Two," he replied. "I didn't skin the first properly, and it smelt so
horrid that I buried it."

"And the second one?"

"Oh, that didn't look anything like a squirrel. It was more like a
short, fat puppy when I had finished, only you knew it was a squirrel by
its tail.--What say?"

"I didn't speak," I said, as he looked up sharply from where he had been
leaning down into the old corn-bin.

"I thought you said something. There, that's all I shall show you
to-day," he went on disconsolately. "I never knew they were so bad till
I brought you up to see them."

"Oh, they're not so very bad," I said, trying to console him by my
interest in his works.

"Yes, they are. Horrible! I did mean to have a glass case for some of
them, and ornament them with dried moss and grass, but I'm afraid that
the more you tried to ornament these, the worse they'd look."

This sounded so perfectly true that I could not say a word in
contradiction; and I stood staring at him, quite at a loss for words,
and he was staring at me, when there was a shout and a rush along the
loft floor, and I saw Burr major and Dicksee coming toward us fast, and
half a dozen more boys crowding up through the trap-door into the place.

"Caught you then!" cried Burr major. "Come along, boys, old Senna's
going to show us his museum and his doctor's shop."

Mercer banged down the lid of the corn-bin, and was struggling hard to
get the hasp over the staple and the padlock on, when Burr major seized
him and dragged him away.

"No, no," roared Mercer. "Here, Burr junior, catch hold." He threw the
padlock to me, but the key dropped out, and one of the boys pounced upon
it, while Dicksee threw his arms round me and held me tight.

"No, you don't," he cried.

"That's right," said Burr major. "Hold him, boys. The artful beggars
had sneaked up here to have a tuck-in. We'll eat it all for them."

"There's nothing in the box--there's nothing there!" cried Mercer,
struggling vainly, but only to be dragged down on the floor.

"Here, two of you, come and sit on him," said Burr major. "Hold that
other beggar tight, Dicksee. Keep quiet, will you, or I will chuck you
down the stairs."

By that time, under our tyrant's orders, two boys had come to Dicksee's
help, and had seized me by a wrist each, so that I was helpless.

"Now then," continued Burr major, "we'll just see what my gentleman
keeps locked up here. He's always sneaking up afte