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thrash do their whole vulgus for them, and construe it to them afterwards; which latter is a method not to be encouraged, and which I strongly advise you all not to practise. Of the others you will find the traditionary most troublesome, unless you can steal your vulguses whole (experto crede), and that the artistic method pays the best, both in marks and other ways.

The vulguses being finished by nine o'clock, and Martin having rejoiced above measure in the abundance of light, and of Gradus and dictionary, and other conveniences almost unknown to him for getting through the work, and having been pressed by Arthur to come and do his verses there whenever he liked, the three boys went down to Martin's den, and Arthur was initiated into the lore of birds' eggs to his great delight. The exquisite colouring and forms astonished and charmed him who had scarcely ever seen any but a hen's egg or an ostrich's, and by the time he was lugged away to bed he had learned the names of at least twenty sorts, and dreamt of the glorious perils of tree-climbing, and that he had found a roc's egg in the island as big as Sindbad's, and clouded like a tit-lark's, in blowing which Martin and he had nearly been drowned in the yolk.

CHAPTER IV.

THE BIRD-FANCIERS.

"I have found out a gift for my fair,

I have found where the wood-pigeons breed;
But let me the plunder forbear,

She would say 'twas a barbarous deed."

"And now, my lad, take them five shilling,
And on my advice in future think;
So Billy pouched them all so willing,

ROWE.

And got, that night, disguised in drink.”

MS. Ballad.

THE next morning at first lesson Tom was turned back in his lines, and so had to wait till the second round, while Martin and Arthur said theirs all right and got out of school at once. When Tom go out and ran down to breakfast at Harrowell's the were missing, and Stumps informed him that the had swallowed down their breakfasts and gone o together, where he couldn't say. Tom hurried ove. his own breakfast, and went first to Martin's study and then to his own, but no signs of the missir boys were to be found. He felt half angry an jealous of Martin - where could they be gone? F learnt second lesson with East and the rest in 1. very good temper, and then went out into quadrangle. About ten minutes before school Ma tin and Arthur arrived in the quadrangle breathless

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and, catching sight of him, Arthur rushed up all excitement, and with a bright glow on his face.

"Oh, Tom, look here," cried he, holding out three moor-hen's eggs; "we've been down the Barby-road to the pool Martin told us of last night, and just see what we've got."

Tom wouldn't be pleased, and only looked out for something to find fault with.

"Why, young'un," said he, "what have you been after? You don't mean to say you've been wading?"

The tone of reproach made poor little Arthur shrink up in a moment and look piteous, and Tom with a shrug of his shoulders turned his anger on Martin.

“Well, I didn't think, Madman, that you'd have rned been such a muff as to let him be getting wet econd through at this time of day. You might have done righ the wading yourself."

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"So I did, of course; only he would come in too to see the nest. We left eleven eggs in; they'll be hatched in a day or two."

"Hang the eggs?" said Tom; "a fellow can't ove. turn his back for a moment but all his work's unstudy done. He'll be laid up for a week for this precious ark, I'll be bound."

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"Indeed, Tom, now," pleaded Arthur, "my feet Ain't wet, for Martin made me take off my shoes and stockings and trousers."

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"But they are wet, and dirty too can't I see?" Ma answered Tom; "and you'll be called up and less, floored when the master sees what a state you're in.

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You haven't looked at second lesson, you know." Oh, Tom, you old humbug! you to be upbraiding any one with not learning their lessons. If you hadn't been floored yourself now at first lesson, do you mean to say you wouldn't have been with them? and you've taken away all poor little Arthur's joy and pride in his first birds' eggs, and he goes and puts them down in the study, and takes down his books with a sigh, thinking he has done something horribly wrong, whereas he has learnt on in advance much more than will be done at second lesson.

But the old madman hasn't, and gets called up and makes some frightful shots, losing about ten places, and all but getting floored. This somewhat appeases Tom's wrath, and by the end of the lesson he has regained his temper. And afterwards in their study he begins to get right again, as he watches Arthur's intense joy at seeing Martin blowing the eggs and glueing them carefully on to bits of cardboard, and notes the anxious loving looks which the little fellow casts sidelong at him. And then he thinks, "What an ill-tempered beast I am Here's just what I was wishing for last night come about, and I'm spoiling it all," and in another five minutes has swallowed the last mouthful of his bile, and is repaid by seeing his little sensitive plant expand again and sun itself in his smiles.

After dinner the madman is busy with the preparations for their expedition, fitting new straps on to his climbing-irons, filling large pill-boxes with cotton-wool, and sharpening East's small axe. They

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carry all their munitions into calling-over, and directly afterwards, having dodged such præpostors as are on the look-out for fags at cricket, the four set off at a smart trot down the Lawford footpath, straight for Caldecott's Spinney and the hawk's nest.

Martin leads the way in high feather; it is quite a new sensation to him, getting companions, and he finds it very pleasant, and means to show them all manner of proofs of his science and skill. Brown and East may be better at cricket and football and games, thinks he, but out in the fields and woods see if I can't teach them something. He has taken the leadership already, and strides away in front with his climbing-irons strapped under one arm, his pecking-bag under the other, and his pockets and hat full of pill-boxes, cotton-wool, and other etceteras. Each of the others carries a pecking-bag, and East his hatchet.

When they had crossed three or four fields without a check, Arthur began to lag, and Tom seeing this shouted to Martin to pull up a bit: "We ain't out Hare-and-hounds- what's the good of grinding on at this rate?"

"There's the spinney," said Martin, pulling up on the brow of a slope at the bottom of which lay Lawford brook, and pointing to the top of the opposite slope; "the nest is in one of those high fir trees at this end. And down by the brook there, I know of a sedge-bird's nest; we'll go and look at it coming back."

"Oh, come on, don't let us stop," said Arthur, who was getting excited at the sight of the wood; so

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