“Take ’em all!” shouted East; “that’ll be one a-piece.”

“No, no; leave one, and then she won’t care,” said Tom.

We boys had an idea that birds couldn’t count, and were quite content as long as you left one egg.  I hope it is so.

Martin carefully put one egg into each of his boxes and the third into his mouth, the only other place of safety, and came down like a lamplighter.  All went well till he was within ten feet of the ground, when, as the trunk enlarged, his hold got less and less firm, and at last down he came with a run, tumbling on to his back on the turf, spluttering and spitting out the remains of the great egg, which had broken by the jar of his fall.

“Ugh, ugh! something to drink—­ugh! it was addled,” spluttered he, while the wood rang again with the merry laughter of East and Tom.

Then they examined the prizes, gathered up their things, and went off to the brook, where Martin swallowed huge draughts of water to get rid of the taste; and they visited the sedge-bird’s nest, and from thence struck across the country in high glee, beating the hedges and brakes as they went along; and Arthur at last, to his intense delight, was allowed to climb a small hedgerow oak for a magpie’s nest with Tom, who kept all round him like a mother, and showed him where to hold and how to throw his weight; and though he was in a great fright, didn’t show it, and was applauded by all for his lissomness.

They crossed a road soon afterwards, and there, close to them, lay a great heap of charming pebbles.

“Look here,” shouted East; “here’s luck!  I’ve been longing for some good, honest pecking this half-hour.  Let’s fill the bags, and have no more of this foozling bird-nesting.”

No one objected, so each boy filled the fustian bag he carried full of stones.  They crossed into the next field, Tom and East taking one side of the hedges, and the other two the other side.  Noise enough they made certainly, but it was too early in the season for the young birds, and the old birds were too strong on the wing for our young marksmen, and flew out of shot after the first discharge.  But it was great fun, rushing along the hedgerows, and discharging stone after stone at blackbirds and chaffinches, though no result in the shape of slaughtered birds was obtained; and Arthur soon entered into it, and rushed to head back the birds, and shouted, and threw, and tumbled into ditches, and over and through hedges, as wild as the Madman himself.

Presently the party, in full cry after an old blackbird (who was evidently used to the thing and enjoyed the fun, for he would wait till they came close to him, and then fly on for forty yards or so, and, with an impudent flicker of his tail, dart into the depths of the quickset), came beating down a high double hedge, two on each side.

“There he is again,” “Head him,” “Let drive,” “I had him there,” “Take care where you’re throwing, Madman.”  The shouts might have been heard a quarter of a mile off.  They were heard some two hundred yards off by a farmer and two of his shepherds, who were doctoring sheep in a fold in the next field.