t one up again into the nest, by showing it how to hop and fly
from branch to branch; the other, however, was too low down, so there
sat the unfortunate little fellow all alone upon a twig, chirruping
and looking up in vain at his lost nest.

[Illustration]

This unlucky nestling had not long sat in this way before some boys,
who had brought the haymakers their dinners, and were returning home,
saw him in the hedge, and immediately began to try to catch him. But
though he could not fly, he could flutter, and if he was not able to
run, at least he could hop; so every time one of the boys got near to
him, the nestling scrambled on to the next bough, and thus from bough
to bough all along the hedge. If the boys had only known how
dreadfully frightened the poor little bird was, they never could have
been so cruel as to hunt him in this way. They did not know this,
however, and only thought of catching him. At last he had got to the
end of the hedge, and then went fluttering down upon the field with
the boys after him. They soon were so close to him, as he hopped and
fluttered along the short grass, that the poor little fellow felt
their hands would presently be upon him, and as a last chance of
escape, he crept and hid himself under a wisp of hay.

Just at that moment there came into the field Charles Turner, with his
sister Fanny, and their maid, each having a little wooden rake to make
hay with. They saw the boys all running very eagerly after something
in the grass, and they ran directly towards them to see what it was.

"O," cried Charles, "it is a poor little bird that cannot fly!"

"Do not hurt it," cried Fanny. "Pray, Charley, ask them not to hurt
it!"

The nestling had been obliged to hop from beneath his little morsel of
hay, and had now crept underneath a haycock.

"We did not mean to hurt it, Miss," said one of the boys; "we only
wanted to catch it, and we could not. But I am afraid one of us trod
upon it somehow by accident, when it was under the bit of hay there;
and, perhaps, it has been hurt somewhere. I'm very sorry if it is
hurt." As he said this, the boys all went away; and the one who had
spoken really _did_ look sorry.

"I wonder where the little fellow is hiding," said Charles. "If he has
been hurt, we had better look for him, to see if we can help him to
find his nest."

"Yes, let us look for him," said Fanny; and they both went to work
directly to remove the hay and search underneath the ha