nd. And down by the brook there, I know of a sedge-bird's nest; we'll
go and look at it coming back."

"Oh, come on, don't let us stop," said Arthur, who was getting excited
at the sight of the wood; so they broke into a trot again, and were soon
across the brook, up the slope, and into the Spinney. Here they advanced
as noiselessly as possible, lest keepers or other enemies should be
about, and stopped at the foot of a tall fir, at the top of which Martin
pointed out with pride the kestrel's nest, the object of their quest.

"Oh where! which is it?" asks Arthur, gaping up in the air, and having
the most vague idea of what it would be like.

"There, don't you see?" said East, pointing to a lump of mistletoe in
the next tree, which was a beech: he saw that Martin and Tom were busy
with the climbing-irons, and couldn't resist the temptation of hoaxing.
Arthur stared and wondered more than ever.

"Well, how curious! it doesn't look a bit like what I expected," said
he.

"Very odd birds, kestrels," said East, looking waggishly at his victim,
who was still star-gazing.

"But I thought it was in a fir-tree?" objected Arthur.

"Ah, don't you know? that's a new sort of fir, which old Caldecott
brought from the Himalayas."

"Really!" said Arthur; "I'm glad I know that--how unlike our firs they
are! They do very well too here, don't they? the Spinney's full of
them."

"What's that humbug he's telling you?" cried Tom, looking up, having
caught the word Himalayas, and suspecting what East was after.

"Only about this fir," said Arthur, putting his hand on the stem of the
beech.

"Fir!" shouted Tom, "why, you don't mean to say, young 'un, you don't
know a beech when you see one?"

Poor little Arthur looked terribly ashamed, and East exploded in
laughter which made the wood ring.

"I've hardly ever seen any trees," faltered Arthur.

"What a shame to hoax him, Scud!" cried Martin. "Never mind, Arthur, you
shall know more about trees than he does in a week or two."

"And isn't that the kestrel's nest, then?" asked Arthur.

"That! why, that's a piece of mistletoe. There's the nest, that lump of
sticks up this fir."

"Don't believe him, Arthur," struck in the incorrigible East; "I just
saw an old magpie go out of it."

Martin did not deign to reply to this sally, except by a grunt, as he
buckled the last buckle of his climbing-irons; and Arthur looked
reproachfully at East without speaking.

But now came the tug