Birds. 6669 



and, holding up my prize to my mother, roar out, " See, mither ! 

 see, mither ! I've got a kae ! " " O, ye rascal, ye little nickern," said 

 my parent ; " did yer father na' tell ye that ye was to bring na' mair 

 creatures here ? Ye ha'e the hoose in a perfect swarm already." 

 " Only this ane, mither," I says. " Na," she replies ;" "it canna be 

 here. Besides, it's past ten o'clock, an' time that ye was awa at yer 

 school. Sae awa wi' ye, an' dinna bring the bird back here again." 

 And out I was bundled, kae and all. Part with it, however, I could 

 not ; and I durst not take it to school with me, for I had introduced 

 enough of this sort of Natural History there as well as at home. 

 What was to be done ? I will tell you, as near as T can remember. 

 I had on a pair of trowsers much too large for me, especially in a 

 certain place, and in them I put the bird, little thinking of the conse- 

 quences. Away I marched to school, which was only a short dis- 

 tance. Up stairs I got, though with some difficulty, but, as was often 

 the case, found the door locked. Prayers, however, not being begun, 

 1 was admitted, but gained the "fool's corner" for being late. This 

 was a sort of narrow, raised platform, which placed those who had 

 the honour of being elevated to it in full view of all the scholars. It 

 had only one seat, an old, rickety, trembling chair; so that two were 

 all that could be accommodated at one time. The school was kept 

 and conducted by an old maid, and was attended by girls as well as 

 boys. We all kneeled on the floor during prayers, our arms resting 

 on our seats. Well, here I was, crowned like any king, having a 

 great thing on my head about six times as high as any nightcap, 

 and nearly the shape of that article. All was silent as death, save the 

 half-moaning, half-groaning voice of the mistress, Bell Hill, as we called 

 her. The devotions, however, such as they were, had not proceeded far 

 when whisperings and stifled laughter rose audibly above the voice 

 of prayer. These becoming louder and more frequent, I looked about 

 to see what was going on ; but to my great surprise I found 

 more than one finger pointing, and all eyes turned, towards myself. 

 I wondered what it could mean, as they had all seen me in the same 

 dress and place before ; but as I knew my trowsers would have been 

 none the worse had they been in the hands of a tailor, I dreaded 

 lest the bird had made his appearance ; so I put my hand round to 

 ascertain, and found that to be the case. Fearing the result, as I 

 knew his doom if detected, I gave him a squeeze, in order to make 

 him draw in his head. Poor fool that I was. No sooner did 

 he feel himself pressed than he bawls out, " Cre-vvaw, cre-waw ;" and 



