cuap.u.] Zhe Sparrow's Nest harried. 49 
this moment!’ Tom slunk away, and got to bed as soon 
as possible. When the lights were out, and all were thought 
to be abed, a light hand removed the clothes from over 
Tom’s head, and put something into his hand. He found 
it to be “a big dad o’ bread-and-butter.” It was so like 
the kind motherly heart and hand to do this. So Tom 
had his supper, after all. 
He was next sent to the Lancaster School in Harviet 
Street. There were two masters in this school. The upper 
classes were in the highest story, the other classes in the 
lowest. The master of the lower class, to which Tom be- 
longed, knowing his weakness, ordered him, on entering, 
not to bring any of his beasts to that school. He was to 
pay more attention to his lessons than he had yet done, or 
he would be punished severely. He did not bring any 
thing but his school-books for a long time, but at last his 
usual temptation befell him. It happened in this way: 
On his way to and from school, along School Hill, he ob- 
served a sparrow’s nest built in the corner part of a spout. 
He greatly envied the sparrow’s nest; but he could only 
feast his longing eyes at a distance. He tried to climb the 
spout once or twice, but it was too high, and bulged out at 
the top. The clamps which held the spout to the wall were 
higher at the top than at the bottom. He had almost given 
up the adventure in despair, when one day, on going to 
school, he observed two men standing together, and looking 
up in the direction of the nest. Boy-like, and probably 
thinking that he was a party concerned in the affair, he 
joined them, and listened to what they were talking about. 
He found that the nest interfered with the flow of water 
along the spout, and that it must be removed; and that the 
whole water-way along the spout must also be cleaned out. 
Tom was now on the alert, and watched the spout close- 
ly. That day passed, and nothing was done. The next 
day passed, and still the men had not made their appear- 
ance. But on the third day, on his way to school, he ob- 
3 
