SOME MISCHIEF—-MAKERS 125 
“Next day they spied the great white pine back of 
Farmer Boardman’s barn. They liked the looks of the 
tree, for it had a bunch of closely knit branches near the 
top, and the neighbourhood in all respects promised good 
feeding, but before they had carried more than a few coarse 
sticks and put them in place, the farmer’s man saw them, 
and not only fired his gun at them to drive them away, 
but climbed the tree and threw the sticks away in order 
to be sure that they should not rest there. 
“What did Jack and Jill do next? They came flying 
over here. The place was attractive, and it was easy to 
slip from the pine woods to the hickories, then across to 
the orchard, and up to the spruce trees outside the window 
here. Goldilocks was too ill to come up into the playroom 
then, and so the windows on this side of the attic were 
shut. 
“The nest building began in earnest, both birds work- 
ing at it. First, a foundation of stout sticks, some of 
them being half-dead twigs from these same spruces; then, 
old weed stalks and vine tendrils, mixed with corn husks, 
until a heap was collected that would fill a half-bushel 
basket. 
“This was the outside of the house; the nursery itself was 
hollowed in the centre of the moss and was about a foot 
across and quite deep. This hollow was well lined and 
soft; it had in it moss, soft grasses, and some horsehair. 
In due time the nest was finished and held six very 
handsome eggs, dull green with purplish brown markings, 
two being more thickly spattered with them than the 
other four. At this time I began to take an interest in 
the household affairs of Jack and Jill Crow.” 
