Pirates 7 1 



end of the pier which was a tree fallen into the 

 wa ter to which their boat was hitched, and 

 knowing that they could swim like water-rats, 

 they were solemnly assured that in the case of 

 reformed pirates, baptism must follow without 

 delay, and they were dropped into the lake. Wet 

 and shivery and thoroughly humiliated, as they 

 pulled their boat for home, it is to be hoped that 

 Captain Ludlow, of "The Sure Death," and his 

 noble compatriot, English Bone, seemed to them 

 what they were in fact, the frightful monsters of 

 a frightful dream. 



That anything of lasting importance should 

 have had its birth in this scrap among five little 

 boys over a brood of young Woodpeckers, on 

 the face of it is improbable, and yet the insig- 

 nificant affair was not without its life-long influ- 

 ence upon the after-life of our small boy. He 

 had been the rescuer of five young birds against 

 great odds and these rescued birds, in a way, 

 sent him forth, with an unflagging determination 

 never to give up the struggle, against all pos- 

 sible odds, for the rescue of all birds from their 

 human enemies, boys and men. 



It was a forlorn little figure, with torn shirt 

 and bloody nose, that went limping home amid 

 the long shadows of the afternoon, not knowing 

 that the pirates and the golden woodpeckers 

 together had come very near making a hero out 

 of him. 



