FELLING A TREE. 5 



" Please father, my birthday is next week." 



" I had not forgotten it, my boy." 



" Well, sir, I suppose you are going to give me a present of 

 some sort as usual, and I thought, if you don't mind, that I 

 should like to choose my present this time for myself." 



" If you choose wisely, you shall have what you wish, Frank.'' 



"Well, sir, all that 1 want is that you should let me have 

 one of the straight young larches by the Broad. I want to cut 

 it down at once that it may season by the spring." 



" It is rather a strange birthday present, Frank, but you may 

 have it, in addition to the one your mother and I were about 

 to get you, which was Morris's British Birds, " 



" Oh, father, I am so glad. That is just the book I have 

 been wanting." 



Mr. Merivale did not ask his son what the larch-tree was 

 for. He thought that if Frank wished him to know he would 

 have told him at once. He had a most perfect trust in his 

 children, and he delighted to let them see that he had this 

 trust in them. Hence it was their pride to deserve the 

 confidence placed in them, and a happier family was not to 

 be found in all Norfolk. Mr. Merivale supposed his son had 

 good reasons for not making him a confidant in the matter of 

 the larch-tree, so forbore to ask him. 



Frank quickly made his way to the outbuildings, where he 

 obtained a couple of axes and a long rope. , laden with these 

 he set off along a thickly-hedged lane until he came to a 

 cottage, set far back in an old-fashioned garden. Here lived 

 Jimmy Brett, his great friend, a boy about the same age as 

 himself, who lived with his grandmother, Mrs. Brett, in this 

 quiet little cottage. As Frank went up the garden walk he 

 saw Jimmy perched on a ladder, engaged in painting a long 

 board, a foot wide, which he had fixed up the whole length 

 of the front of the cottage, just below the bed-room window. 



" What on earth is that for, Jimmy ? " cried Frank, in 

 astonishment. 



Jimmy turned round, revealing himself as a slight, pale- 

 faced lad, with an eager and intelligent countenance, and 

 replied 



" Well, you see, the swallows build in such great numbers 

 in these wide old-fashioned eaves that they are rather a 

 nuisance, and grandmother does not like the mess they make 



