tched his hand out of the quickset hedge into which he
had thrust it, to reach the rough outside of a nest built by a bird,
evidently in the belief that the hawthorn leaves would hide it from
sight, and while they were growing the thorns would protect it from
mischievous hands.

But the leaves opened out slowly that cold spring, and a party of boys
from Dr Dunham's school, the Friary, Broadhurst, Kent, was not long in
spying out the unlucky parents' attempt at house-building and nursery.
Still, the thorns did their duty to some extent when Brian Green of the
red head leaped across the big dry ditch, rudely crushing a great clump
of primroses and forcing them down the slope, for when the
freckled-faced lad thrust his hand in to grasp the nest a sharp prick
made him withdraw it, while this action brought it in contact with a
natural _chevaux de frise_, scarified the back, and made a long scratch
on his thumb.

"I wish you'd keep your tongue inside your teeth, Nic Braydon!" cried
the boy fiercely. "You won't be happy till I've given you another
licking. Look here what you've made me do!"

"I didn't make you do it," said the first speaker. "Why don't you let
the birds alone?"

"Because, if you please, Miss Braydon," said the bigger lad mincingly,
"I'm not so good as you are. Oh dear, no! I'm going to take that nest
of young blackbirds because I want them to bring up and keep in a cage.
I'm going to transport them to the shed in the playground."

The first boy winced sharply at his companion's words, and the four lads
present burst into a derisive laugh at his annoyance; but he smothered
it down, and said quietly:--"Then you may as well leave them alone, for
they're not blackbirds."

"Yes, they are, stoopid."

"No, they're not."

"How do you know?"

"Because I found the nest when it was first built, and saw the eggs and
the old bird sitting."

"Oh, that's it, is it? Oh, I say, isn't he a nice, good little boy? He
doesn't want me to take the young birds because he wants to steal them
himself."

The others laughed in their thoughtlessness as their schoolfellow winced
again, and Brian Green still hung on to the bank, sucking the scratches
on his bleeding hand and grinning with satisfaction at the annoyance his
innuendoes caused.

"I say, boys," he cried, "they don't transport people for life for
stealing young blackbirds, do they?"

There was a fresh roar of laughter, and the boys watched Dominic
Brayd