A NURSERY CATASTROPHE 119 



Perhaps it was to express confusion, or perhaps 

 she was asserting the claim of the next on the 

 row. At all events, when she returned next 

 time, she evidently remembered 'all about it, and 

 gave her fly to the right bird. 



The old robin comes more frequently now, 

 though the young one is as fierce as ever against 

 it. Can this savage fellow be the child of the 

 other? one of those for whom he laboured so 

 successfully last spring ? I am afraid it is only 

 too likely, or the little brigand would not feel so 

 much at home here. 



I had but one robin's nest in the garden last 

 year, and that was the work of a foolish and pretty 

 young pair that built in some ivy close to the 

 gate, and within reach of the eyes and hands of 

 all the school-children w r ho pass to and fro twice a 

 day. Unfortunately I did not see it till too late 

 not indeed till the young were out of the egg or 

 I should have removed it. One day I heard the 

 click of the gate, and saw boys running down the 

 lane, and went at once to see if a catastrophe had 

 happened. There was an empty nest, and one 

 poor little unfledged robin dead on the ground. 

 The others appeared to be ' peeping ' and piping 

 and struggling among the shrubs in the next 

 garden ; but as they could neither walk nor fly, 

 no doubt they perished. 



