n, Pan!"

He touched the boy with his foot, but it had no effect; and bending
down, he took one arm and shook it.

The effect was magical. Pan sat up, fending his face with his arm, and
apostrophising some imaginary personage, as he fenced and complained.

"Oh, don't! I'll never do so no more. Oh, please! Oh, I say! It
hurts!--You, Master Syd?"

"Yes; who did you think it was?"

"My father with the rope's-end and--oh, I say, I am so stiff and sore,
and--have you got anything to eat?"

Sydney shook his head despondingly.

"I was waking you up to come and try and find some."

"There's lots o' rabbits about here," grumbled Pan, "if we could catch
some."

"Yes, and hares too, Pan, if we had a good gun. Come along."

They rambled along by the stream, finding before long a blackthorn laden
with sloes, of which Pan ate two, and Sydney contented himself with half
of one. Then they were voted a failure, and the blackberries growing in
a sunny, open spot were tried with no better result.

At the end of another quarter of an hour a clump of hazel stubs came in
view--fine old nut-bearers, with thickly mossed stumps, among which grew
clusters of light golden buff fungi looking like cups; but though these
were good for food, in the eyes of the boys they were simply toadstools,
and passed over for the sake of the fringed nuts which hung in twos and
threes, even here and there in fours and fives.

It did not take long to get a capful of these, and they soon sat down to
make their _al fresco_ meal.

Another disappointment! The nuts, as they cracked them, were, with a
few exceptions, full of a blackish dust, and the exceptions contained in
addition a poor watery embryo of a nut that was not worth the cracking
to obtain.

They gave up the food hunt in despair, for there was no cultivated land
near, where a few turnips might have been obtained; and wandering slowly
back they at last reached the road.

The search had not been, though, without result--it had taken time; and
when they reached the solitary road the sun was so near setting, that
after a final protest from Pan, Syd started at once for home and the
scenes they had to face.

The route they had chosen for their flight was the most solitary leading
from Southbayton. It was but little used, leading as it did right out
into the forest, and in consequence they had it almost to themselves
while the light lasted, and after dark they did not pass a soul as the