ead downwards, to the trunk after the same fashion as he did on
the day of the fishing 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 Passer 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 cock 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 shirt, in his hair, and down his back, and
making him shift 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 Dick, and get some rats as we go along. I say,
Fred, you can stay in Dick's kennel, and we'll put the collar round your
neck."

Now Fred wanted to do what was right, and would not blind himself into
the belief that "Papa would be so pleased with the eggs;" for he knew
his uncle would not like them to go off in the way proposed; but he was
not pre