said he, in an animated voice, "I want you to go with
me."

"Where are you going?" asked the friend.

"I am going to look for a mocking-bird's nest."

"What for?"

"To get a young one. Mr. Acres said he would give me half a dollar for a
young mocking-bird."

"He did?"

"Yes, he did so!" was the animated reply.

"But don't he know that it's wrong to rob bird's nests!"

"If it had been wrong, Harry, Mr. Acres wouldn't have asked me to get
him a bird. He knows what is right and wrong, as well as anybody about
here."

"And so does Mr. Milman, our Sunday-school teacher; and he says that it
is wicked to rob bird's nests. You know he has told us that a good many
times."

"But Mr. Acres knows what is right as well as Mr. Milman, and if it had
been wrong, he'd never have asked me to get him a bird. And then, you
know, he says he will give me half a dollar for a single one."

"I wouldn't touch a bird's nest for ten dollars," rejoined Henry Jones,
warmly.

"I would then," replied Dick, from whose mind the promised reward had,
for the time, completely dispelled every tender impression received both
from his mother, who had been very careful of her child, and his teacher
at the Sunday-school. "But come," he added, "you'll go with me, anyhow."

"Not, if you are going to rob a bird's nest," firmly responded Henry.
"It is wicked to do so."

"Wicked! I don't see any thing so very wicked about it. Mr. Acres is a
good man, so everybody says, and I know he wouldn't tell me to do a
wicked thing."

"I'm sure it is wicked," persevered Henry Jones, "for isn't it taking
the poor little birds from their mother? Don't you think it would be
wicked for some great giant to come and carry your little sister away
off where you could never find her, and shut her up in a cage, and keep
her there all her life?"

"No, but birds are not little children. It's a very different thing. But
you needn't talk, Harry; for it's no use. If you'll go along, you shall
have half the money I get for the bird--if not, why, I'll go myself and
keep the whole of it."

"I wouldn't go with you for a hundred dollars," said Harry
half-indignantly, turning away.

"Then I'll go myself," was Dick Lawson's sneering reply, as he sprang
forward and hurried off to the woods.

He did not, however, feel very easy in mind, although he attempted first
to whistle gayly, and then to sing. The remonstrance of Henry Jones had
its effect in calling back previous bett