e was nothing for it but that her sister should clamber up the bank,
and unhook the dress, which she did, when Fin gave her a hand, and drew
her up to her side.

"What a tomboy you do keep, Fin," said Tiny, panting; "see how my dress
is torn."

"Never mind, I'll sew it up for you. What's the good of living in the
country if you can't be free as the birds? Sweet, sweet, sweet! Oh,
you beauty!" she cried, as a goldfinch sounded his merry lay. "Tiny,
shouldn't you like to be a bird?"

"No," was the quiet reply. "I would rather be what I am."

"I should like to be a bird," said Fin, placing one foot on an
excrescence of a stumpy pollard oak, and, making a jump, she caught hold
of a low bough.

"But not now," cried Tiny. "What are you going to do?"

"Going to do?" laughed Fin. "Why, climb this tree;" and she got a step
higher.

"Oh, Fin, how foolish! Whatever for? Suppose some one came by?"

"Nobody comes along here at this time of the day, my dear; so here goes,
and if I fall pick up my pieces, and carry them safely home to dear Aunt
Matty. `And the dicky-bird sang in the tree,'" she trilled out, as step
by step she drew herself up into the crown of the stumpy, gnarled
pollard.

"Oh, Fin!" exclaimed her sister.

"Its all right, Miss Timidity. I'm safe, and I came on purpose," cried
Fin, from up in her perch, her face glowing, and eyes sparkling with
merriment.

"But what are you trying to do?"

"To get some of this, sweet innocent. You can't see, I suppose, what it
is?"

"No, indeed, I cannot," said Tiny--"yes, I can. Why, it's mistletoe."

"Mistletoe, is it, Miss? Ahem!" cried Finn, resting one little fist
upon her hip,--and stretching out the other--"Tableau--young Druid
priestess about to cut the sacred plant with a fern trowel."

"Fin, dear, do come down. Don't touch it."

"Not touch it? But I will. There!" she cried, tearing off a piece of
the pretty parasite. "I'll wear that in my hat all the way home as a
challenge to nobody, and on purpose to make Aunt Matty cross. She'll--"

"Hist, Fin; oh, be quiet," whispered Tiny.

"Eh? What's the matter?" cried Fin, from her perch.

"Oh, pray be quiet; here's somebody coming."

"Never mind," said Fin. "You stand behind the tree--they can't see us--
till I shout `Hallo!'"

But Fin kept very quiet, peering down squirrel-wise, as a step was heard
coming along the lane, and she caught glimpses through the trees of a
man in a rough tw