6 IN THE GREEN LEAF 



a hern rookery, as I calls 'un ; so me an' a 

 mate o' mine as could swarm well was ordered 

 tu git 'em out on it. When he gits tu his lot 

 I hears him holler out like mad, an' I see his 

 han' a-bleedin'. Jest as my figger-head showed 

 abuv' the nest, summat went clean through my 

 cap right inter my head, like one o' them 'ere 

 spike nails. It was a rap, I tell 'ee ; it was a 

 marcy as I hadn't gone back'ards out of the 

 tree ; but as 'twas a fir, I'd got fair holdin'. 

 You should ha' seen 'em nip out ; 'twas 'most 

 enough to fritten ye. Their galley long necks 

 was movin' about like snakes, an' they was 

 clappin' and threshin' with their beaks an' 

 wings like mad things. Down we cums tu 

 where keeper wus with a big hamper fur tu put 

 'em in, an' he sez, 'What hev you bin a-doin' 

 tu yerselves ; ye bin climbin' midlin' ork'ard, 

 ain't ye ? ' 



" Then we tells him what they herns ha' done 

 fur us. * Hev a nip o' sumthin', an' giv 'em 

 another turn,' he says. ' They can't fly ; least- 

 ways, they wun't. Foller 'em up as fur as ye 

 darest, an' shake 'em off the boughs.' 



" So up we goes, downright waxy like, fur 

 what they'd set into us, an' we shook 'em. I 

 doan't think as iver I laughed so much in my 



