e was to
be seen half out of window, administering to the varied wants of his
callow[5] brood. After deep cogitation,[6] East and his chum had
spliced a knife on to the end of a fishing rod; and having watched
Martin out, had, after half an hour's severe sawing, cut the string by
which the basket was suspended, and tumbled it on to the pavement
below, with hideous remonstrance from the occupants. Poor Martin,
returning from his short absence, collected the fragments and replaced
his brood (except one whose neck had been broken in the descent) in
their old location, suspending them this time by string and wire
twisted together, defiant of any sharp instrument which his
persecutors could command. But, like the Russian engineers at
Sebastopol,[7] East and his chum had an answer for every move of the
adversary; and the next day had mounted a gun in the shape of a
pea-shooter upon the ledge of their window, trained so as to bear
exactly upon the spot which Martin had to occupy while tending his
nurslings. The moment he began to feed, they began to shoot; in vain
did the enemy himself invest in a pea-shooter, and endeavor to answer
the fire while he fed the young birds with his other hand; his
attention was divided, and his shots flew wild, while every one of
theirs told on his face and hands, and drove him into howlings and
imprecations. He had been driven to ensconce[8] the nest in a corner
of his already too well-filled den.

[4] #Amateur nest#: here, a nest made by himself.

[5] #Callow#: unfledged; without feathers.

[6] #Cogitation#: thought.

[7] #Sebastopol#: a fortified town in the Crimea; the scene of
a siege in the Crimean War.

[8] #Ensconce#: to place in a protected place.

THE PHILOSOPHER'S DEN.

The door was barricaded by a set of ingenious bolts of his own
invention, for the sieges were frequent by the neighbors when any
unusually ambrosial[9] odor spread itself from the den to the
neighboring studies. The door-panels were in a normal[10] state of
smash, but the frame of the door resisted all besiegers, and behind it
the owner carried on his varied pursuits; much in the same state of
mind, I should fancy, as a border-farmer[11] lived in, in the days of
the old moss-troopers,[12] when his hold might be summoned or his
cattle carried off at any minute of night or day.

[9] #Ambrosial#: here, delicious, in an ironical sense.

[10] #Normal#: usual; regular.

[11]