SUMMER DAYS 



59 



wide berth and stuck to my home under the hay- 

 stack, and picked up enough odds and ends to keep 

 me ahve, though very lean and active. 



There was an old boot in a ditch, not exactly a nice 

 boot ; a good deal of the flavour had gone out of it, 

 but it was very satisfying, though not exactly a 

 nutritious diet. I only used it to fill up the gaps 

 in my inside, and there was still plenty of it left 

 when the fat days of harvest came. I had one 

 lucky windfall, for a cuckoo laid an egg in the nest 

 which a pair of hedge-sparrows had built, where the 

 hedge actually touched my hayrick, about a yard 

 above the entrance to my burrow. The two old 

 birds were very proud of the honour, which seems 

 to count for a great deal in birdland, and chirped 

 and chattered over it all day. I got rather bored 

 with hearing so much about it, not realizing that it 

 was going to concern me a good deal. It did not 

 strike me as anything very special until some time 

 after the young cuckoo was hatched and had begun 

 to grow. \A^hen this happened, I fancy that Mr. and 

 Mrs. Hedge-sparrow found the honour rather a 

 burden, for it was a hungry child ! Backwards 

 and forwards they went as fast as ever they could 

 fly, bringing in caterpillars and gi'ubs of all kinds, 

 to satisfy the hunger of that voracious nestling. I 



