uld come back and circle about over
the pines.

Addison desired to examine a nest. One of the pines had low knots on the
trunk, within six feet of the ground, and a little higher up drooping
branches. There was a nest near the top. Halstead offered to climb up to
it. Addison and I lifted him up to the knots. He climbed up by these to
the lowest limbs, and then went on from branch to branch toward the top.

"Two eggs!" he shouted, peeping over into the great nest.

"Don't break them!" cried Addison. "Bring them down if you can!"

Halstead took them out and put them into his loose frock, then, before
we guessed what he was going to do, he had upset the nest from the
branches in which it rested, and it came bumping down through the boughs
to the ground. The fall shook it to pieces considerably, yet we could
see what its shape had been. There were some sticks in it three and four
feet long, as thick as a man's wrist. The inside was lined with dry
grass. It was large enough to allow the old heron to double its long
legs and sit in it comfortably. Halse now came down with the eggs. They
were of a dirty white color, the shells rough and uneven. Theodora
imagined that they would be as large as goose-eggs; they were not larger
than those of a turkey,--about two and a half inches in length by one
and a half in width.

"I shall carry them home and hatch them under a hen," said Addison.

"I guess the old hen will cackle when she sees what she has hatched,"
exclaimed Ellen, laughing.

While we were looking at them, a noise in the brush startled us, and,
turning hastily, we saw a young man wearing a glazed cap standing at the
border of alders, near the brook. His appearance startled us somewhat.
Presently we noticed that he was beckoning, evidently to Halstead, and
that the latter seemed very uneasy; he bent over the eggs and pretended
not to see any one. But the fellow continued loitering there; and at
last Halse jumped up, saying, "I'll see what he wants, I guess," and
went out to the alders. The man stepped back and they both disappeared
among the bushes.

We stood waiting for some minutes, then started to go slowly out through
the pines into the pasture and homeward with our trophies.

"Who could that have been?" Ellen exclaimed to Addison in a low voice;
but Addison merely shook his head.

Somewhat to our surprise, we found Halstead at home in advance of us; he
had already sat down to supper with Gramp and Gram.

Th