r, that Nan Redfurn
would mention them in the tent. He would see what ailed them, that they
would not give him any music to-day. By incessant cooing, he obtained
an answer from one solitary pigeon; which he took advantage of to climb
the tree, and look for the nest. He found a nest; but there was nothing
in it. He climbed several trees, and found abundance of nests; but all
deserted. Except his solitary pigeon (which presently vanished), there
appeared to be not a winged creature in all those trees. The birds had
been frightened away by the roar of the flood of yesterday; and,
perhaps, by seeing the fields, to which they had been wont to resort for
their food, all turned into a waste of muddy waters.

Roger threw to the ground every empty nest he found, from the common
inability of a boy to keep his hands off a bird's-nest. When he was
tired of climbing trees, he picked up all the scattered nests, and laid
them in a long row on the grass. They looked dismal enough. It is
disagreeable to see a range of houses left half-built (such as may be
seen in the neighbourhood of large towns), with the doorways gaping, and
the window-spaces empty, and roofs hardly covering in the dark inside;
but such a row of houses is less dismal than Roger's array of
birds'-nests. There is something in the very make of a bird's-nest
which rouses thoughts of blue or red-spotted eggs, of callow young
birds, with their large hungry eyes and beaks, or of twittering
fledglings, training for a shimmer life of pleasure. To see, instead of
these, their silent empty habitations, extended in a long row, would be
enough to make any one dull and sad. So Roger found. He kicked them
into a heap under a tree, and thought that they would make a fine
crackling fire. He would burn them, every one.

While he was wondering whether any birds would come back to miss their
nests, it struck him that he had not thought how he was to pass the
night. It was nothing new to him to sleep in the open air. He liked it
best at this season. But he had usually had a rug to lie upon, with the
tent over him; or a blanket; or, at worst, he had a sack to creep into.
The clothes he had on were old and thin; and as he looked at them, it
made him angry to think that he was not to have everything as he liked
it, after all. Here he should have to pass a cold night, and with
nothing between him and the hard ground. He thought of gathering
leaves, moss, and high grass, t