A Wary Mother 199 



of that; let's go and see how Seebright and 

 the eggs are coming on." 



" Seebright and the eggs ! " exclaimed Ben 

 chuckling. " She hasn't any eggs. These 

 are her eggs hiding here in the brake." 



I opened my mouth wide with astonish- 

 ment. 



" Why, Ben, you don't mean that the eggs 

 have hatched and our partridge chicks are 

 gone, do you? " 



" Just so," replied my companion. " I 

 know it just as well as though I had looked 

 under Seebright. Mrs. Partridge has beaten 

 us at our own game. When she found that 

 another was sitting on her eggs she was prob- 

 ably mighty put out, but finding she could do 

 nothing, she just hung about to see how it 

 would all end. Maybe she had a plan in her 

 wise head. I can't just say as to that. You 

 see the eggs were probably further along than 

 we imagined and they hatched last night. 

 When they were all hatched, Mrs. Partridge 

 coolly called the chicks away from Seebright 

 through the meshes of the wire-netting and 



