228 SPRING. 



places for jackdaws. The playground for the school- 

 boys was immediately at the base of the tower, and 

 the more adventurous had cast many a wistful look 

 upon the sable and noisy nation above them, as they 

 busied themselves in their spring labours ; but as the 

 door was seldom opened, they were, for a long time, 

 forced to look in vain. At last the boy alluded to 

 contrived to secrete himself and one of his companions 

 behind the door, when the keeper of the clock retired 

 from winding up that monitor ; and, when all was safe, 

 the two youths mounted the stairs, and were soon upon 

 the battlement. The parapet was so high that they 

 could not see over it ; but it was pierced in quatrefoils, 

 through which one of them could creep, but the nests 

 were not within arm's length. They wore flat worsted 

 bonnets, the rim or ring of which is particularly strong. 

 The young bird-catcher laid hold of the bonnet, the 

 other side of which was held by his companion from 

 the inside, and went heels foremost out at the quatre- 

 foil. There, he hung at arm's length by the bonnet, 

 reached down with his other arm, and emptied the 

 nests into his pocket ; and while he hung in this 

 manner one hundred and fifty feet above the hard 

 stones, he kept calling to his companion, " Now, 

 mind, if you let go the bonnet, I shall not give you 

 one of the < kaes.' " The threat had its effect : the 

 fowler and the " kaes " were pulled through the aper- 

 ture in safety, and both descended the stairs without 

 any accident ; and the adventurer, who used to take 

 no small pride in telling the story, was in the habit of 

 boasting that he had, before he was twelve years* old, 

 done, for four featherless " daws," more than the 



