d on to what looked a particularly dry spot, in he
went up to his knees in the soft bog, and it was only with great
difficulty that he scrambled out again to where his brother and Fred
stood laughing and cheering him.

"I don't care," said Harry, shaking himself like a dog; "I don't mind
being wet, and, now I am wet, I mean to have the eggs."

"No, don't," said Fred, "you'll sink in."

"No, I shan't," said Harry; "I mean to make a corduroy-road, like they
do over the swamps in America, that we read about."

"Ah, that will be capital," said Philip; "come on."

And so the lads set to work, and in amongst the trees close by they soon
found a large dead branch, and laid it down across the first soft place,
and they very soon would have had a firm pathway to the moorhen's nest,
but for the simple reason that they were not provided with woodcutter's
axes, ropes, etc; the consequence was, that they could find no more wood
fit for the purpose, and Harry's corduroy-road was composed only of one
cord.

"Oh," said Philip, "don't I wish we had a lot of the faggots out of the
stack-yard."

"Let's fetch some," said Fred, which would have been a capital plan,
only the faggots would have been rather awkward things to carry through
the thick underwood; and, besides, they could only have carried one
each, and home was now about four miles off, while they would have
wanted at least twenty.

"What a jolly bother!" said Philip. "Why don't you go round the other
side, Harry, and swim?"

"You go," said Harry: "I'd go, if it wasn't for the eels, and the water
being so deep; I wouldn't mind, if it was only eight or nine feet, but
they say it's hundreds of feet to the bottom."

But Philip did not feel disposed to go, and Fred could not swim, so, to
their great disappointment, they were obliged to leave the moorhen's
nest,--with at least a dozen eggs in, so Harry said; but, as he had been
very little nearer to the receptacle than his brother and cousin, this
statement was rather of a doubtful nature; still, as the others had not
been so near, they did not feel themselves justified in contradicting,
neither did they wish to, so the party reluctantly left the much-coveted
treasure, the two wet members of the party--namely, Dick and Harry--
leading the way further into the wood.

And now there were so many objects to take attention, that the professed
purpose of the trip was quite forgotten, till Harry by chance spied a
woodpecker jus