15b BIRDS' NESTS. 



but still your wisest plan would have been to 

 have bought a few thorns and repaired it, be- 

 fore you had let the time slip by for cropping 

 the ground again, and trusted to his making 

 an allowance out of your rent. You surely 

 cannot expect him to pay for the loss of any 

 more than the cattle actually destroyed, so 

 that the loss of the coining crop must fall upon 

 you. Have you told Mr. Long what mischief 

 his cattle have done? 55 



" I have not told him myself; but I have sent 

 over my eldest boy two or three times, though 

 I am not quite sure whether he has taken the 

 message. He is very busy birds'-nesting just 

 now, and I think it very likely he has stayed 

 about and forgotten it. Miss Mild has pro- 

 mised to give him twopence a dozen for eggs 

 to ornament her new summer-house, 1 * and I 

 don't like to interfere with his little gains." 



" I am very sorry that Miss Mild, or any 

 one else that ought to know better, should 



* A fact. 



