26o ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



who worked in the woods and parks, and he was the 

 champion tree-cHmber in the place. One day, when 

 coming from work with the other men, a squirrel was 

 seen to run up an exceedingly tall isolated fir tree, and 

 he, in a moment of madness, undertook to catch and 

 bring it down. Up after the squirrel he went until he 

 could go no farther, and the little thing was still above 

 him, afraid to jump down and give him a chance to 

 capture it, clinging to a slender branch directly over his 

 head and out of reach. He then thought to knock it 

 down into his hands, and having selected a small branch 

 for the purpose was engaged in wrenching it off when 

 the squirrel made his jump, and as it came flying down 

 past his head he attempted to capture it, using both 

 hands, but missed it, and at the same time his legs lost 

 their grip on the branch he was on ; and down after the 

 squirrel he came, crashing through the higher branches 

 and coming at last with a thud to the earth. He had 

 fallen on his back, and was taken up senseless and 

 terribly injured and sent away to the Hospital at Win- 

 chester. For twelve long months he was kept there, 

 on his back, and when sent home was told that he would 

 never be fit to do any outdoor work, although he might 

 perhaps live for some years. They were wrong; he 

 did get perfectly well, and when I knew him, half a 

 century or more after this terrible accident, he was still 

 hard at work mowing, digging and wood-cutting. 



Two or three years before this terrible fall put an 

 end to his tree-climbing exploits, a member of the ducal 



