aving been given, the two boys set off together the next morning,
with Jack in a basket between them making hard angry pecks at the side
of it the whole way.

They could see the doctor's cottage for some distance before they
reached it, and presently the doctor himself came out and stood at the
gate.

"When he sees the basket," remarked David, "he'll think we've found his
jackdaw, or p'r'aps he'll think we're bringing him a new one. Won't he
be disappointed?"

"I sha'n't give him time to think," said Ambrose. "I shall say, `I've
brought a call-bird,' directly I get to him."

David thought it would have been more to the purpose to say, "_We've_
brought a call-bird," but he did not wish to begin a dispute just then,
so he let the remark pass.

"Do you suppose," he said, "that he knows what a call-bird is?"

Ambrose gave a snort of contempt.

"Why, there's not a single thing he doesn't know," he answered. "He
knows everything in the world."

David's awe increased as they got nearer to the cottage and Dr Budge,
who stood with his hands in the pockets of his flannel dressing-gown
watching their approach.

"You'd better go back now," said Ambrose when they were quite close.
"I'll take the basket."

But David was not going to give up his rights, and he held firmly on to
his side of the handle.

"You said I might carry it to the gate," he replied firmly; and thus,
both the boys advancing, the basket was set down at the doctor's feet.

"It's a call-bird," said Ambrose very quickly, without waiting to say
good-morning, while David fixed his broadest stare on the doctor's face
to see the effect of the words.

Doctor Budge looked down at the basket, in which Jack now began to
flutter restlessly, and then at the two boys.

"A call-bird, eh?" he said. "And what may a call-bird be?"

Ambrose felt that David was casting a glance of triumph at him. Dr
Budge evidently did _not_ know everything in the world. He wished David
would go away, but in spite of the sharp nudge he had given him when
they put the basket down, he showed no sign of moving. The meaning of
the call-bird was soon made clear to the doctor, who listened
attentively and said it seemed a very good idea, and that he was much
obliged to them for telling him of it.

"It was Andrew who told us," broke in David, speaking for the first
time. "We didn't either of us know it before."

"You'd better go home now," said Ambrose, who saw that David did no