1 68 More Tales of the Birds 



me and gaining ground while I struggled through 

 a hedge. Then I got wild and heated, I suppose, 

 and I remember nothing more distinctly. But 

 Nelly says that I came rushing into their garden, 

 shouting to her, ' Look after Mag,' for the police 

 were after me for stealing. She thought at first 

 I was at one of my games, and told me to run off 

 and climb up a tree, and she would bring me 

 food ; and I was just going off towards the three 

 elms when the policeman ran in and collared me, 

 and then she fought him and called him names 

 till her mother came out and dragged her away. 

 This is what she told me months afterwards. 



" That was the last I saw of Nelly for a long, 

 long time. I was locked up, and the magistrates 

 made short work of me. Of course they laughed 

 at my story of the sovereign and the gentleman, 

 for I neither knew his name nor where he lived. 

 All went against me ; the shopkeeper proved that 

 I had changed a sovereign, Miss Pringle proved 

 she had left one on her desk, the housemaid 

 proved that I had been gardening at the window, 

 the cook that the money was found in my drawer, 

 and the policeman that I had run away ; and 



