t entering a hole in a hollow tree, and then called his
companions' attention to the fact. To scale the tree was the work of a
very few minutes, and, to Harry's intense delight, he found the hole
sufficiently large to admit his hand and arm, and this time he was
successful, for he drew forth with great care, one at a time, three
woodpecker's eggs, which he placed its his cap, and then descended.

So far the trip had been most successful, for they had obtained the eggs
generally reckoned as scarce in most parts of the country, from the
secluded habits of the birds; and now the lads turned their attention to
find the nest of a turtle-dove. The part of the wood they were in was
very thick and full of underwood, a large proportion of which consisted
of hazel stubs so dense that, almost before they were aware of it, Fred
and Philip were separated from Harry and Dick; and when they did miss
them, and called out, a faint and distant "Halloo!" was the response.

"Never mind," said Philip, "I'm tired. Let's sit down here and let him
come to us."

Saying which he took his seat upon the mossy trunk of an old fallen
tree, an example which Fred was not long in following; and there they
waited, enjoying the delicious sensation of rest felt in a shady spot
after a long, toilsome walk, and thinking very little about poor Harry.

"What a while Harry is," said Fred at last; "isn't he coming?"

"Oh, yes; he'll be here presently," said Philip; "he'll be sure to find
us."

After a few minutes' pause, "What's that?" said Fred, pointing to some
rustling and moving leaves close by the opening where they sat.

"Hush," said Philip; "don't move; it's a stoat or a weasel. You'll see
him directly;" and in a moment after a long thin body came creeping out
from the herbage. But it was neither weasel nor stoat, but a very large
snake, which came right across the open space they were in--making Fred
turn quite pale, for his imagination immediately whispered to him of
poison fangs, rattlesnakes, cobras, and all sorts of venomous brutes.
But the snake had no idea of touching the intruders on the silence of
the forest, but made directly for a spot upon the other side of the
opening, which he would soon have reached if it had depended upon Fred;
but Philip possessed the animosity of his race against the serpent
tribe, so caught up a rough branch that he had previously broken from a
tree and slightly trimmed with his knife, and rushed after the