JOHN

CHAPTER VII.

WOOD-PATHS.

Howard

with us, to look for birds' nests. wants some cedar-birds' eggs, and there are lots of 'em there."

"And then," added Howard, "we 'll keep on along the brook, up towards the woods and find some vireos'."

Ah, the lessons of fear that we get for the most part teach us only to avoid-and that certain special risks; not to become to attain higher and wholly.

It must be a lesson of beauty to teach us that.

In a few days Kathie was nearly well. Meantime Johnnie quite devoted himself to her. All the gentle and affectionate side of his character was drawn out. The despised spools were collected, and he improvised numberless school and family scenes, in which they were made the puppets. They all had names; and by the hour at a time Johnnie sat by the little table that was drawn up for Kathie beside the bed, and manoeuvred them for her amusement.

One morning, just as they were both growing rather tired of this employment, and Kathie had declared that she was "getting quite worn out with having so much care of all these children," and that she "believed she would send them off to bed, and read Rosamond awhile," John heard voices below inquiring for him, and on running down to the door found Stephen and Howard Sellinger.

"Come, Johnnie," said the former, "we want you to go up into the High Pasture

"I've got ten eggs already for my collection," said Stephen, "and four or five duplicates that I'll give you. We got blue birds', and robins', and cat-birds', in the lanes, yesterday; and wrens' and song-sparrows' just for stepping out of the house. There's a cunning little house-wren has built in our wood-shed, and laid seven eggs; and father

he said. Many birds don't lay such a lot for one hatching. I tell you it's jolly fun!"

John asked his mother's leave for the expedition, and whether he mightn't begin his collection to-day. After he had explained all that Howard and Stephen had told him about it, and adduced the arguments that had had weight with Mr. Sellinger, Mrs. Osburn said that she saw no objection herself, provided they kept to the conditions ; but she thought there would be great temptation, where three boys went exploring together, to secure more than one egg from a single nest. She gave him permission, however, to go and share in the expedition of this morning; but he was not to consider that full consent had been given for him to continue the pursuit, until his father also should have been consulted.

John agreed to all this; and the three boys, with a basket containing their luncheons, in case they should get so far from home as to remain out beyond the dinnerhour, set off, in high spirits, over Cedar Bridge.

Out in the pasture, and along the brookside, the air was full of the notes of different birds, that John, in his city-bred ignorance, could not distinguish from one another; and had it not been for the assurances of

Howard, he would no sooner have dreamed of the possibility of tracing them to their little, mysterious homes, and spying out their domestic arrangements, than of finding the fairies and getting a peep into Elfland.

But Howard looked about him, and listened with a very confident air.

"Hark!" said he, presently, with a gesture for the others to pause. "There's a brown thrush ! I think he's somewhere in that clump of bushes off at the right. Wait here a minute."

John and Stephen stood still, and Howard moved cautiously on a little distance up the brook-side.

Presently, as he made his way among the bushes from which the sound proceeded, there was a sudden change in the character of the notes. They expressed fright and anxiety. Then there was a flutter of wings, and out from the little thicket flew, first the merry singer and then his mate, still circling in the air, however, around the spot, the male bird uttering a threatening and reproachful cry.

It was hardly a moment, however, that Howard kept them in their suspense; for almost immediately he emerged again, as cautiously as he had entered, and came quickly back towards his companions. As he reached them, he held up his prize,- an egg, about as large as a robin's, of a greenish-white colour, dusted thickly all over with little freckles of brown.

"We'll get them the best way we can," said he, "and then divide spoils afterwards. I went in because I knew where to look, and just what sort of a nest to look for. There were three eggs, just one a-piece, if we had been rapacious enough to take 'em. The bird wasn't sitting. They generally lay five, I believe. Maybe we'll find another nest before we go home. Now let's keep on up the hill, among the pines and hemlocks, and look after cedar-birds. Where's your box, Steenie ?"

Stephen produced a box, filled partially with cotton-wool, wherein Howard placed the egg carefully, and then they kept on up over the slope of the pasture.

The sociable little cedar-birds, or waxwings, were there, as Stephen had said, "lots

of 'em." It was just the place for them. Only a short flight either way took them into orchards and gardens on the one hand, and wide pastures on the other, where was promise of endless store of fruits and berries the summer long; and meantime there were raids to be made upon hordes of worms and slugs, and caterpillars, that would else spoil alike their feast and the farmer's profit. Back they would come, after these flights of forage and frolic, among the still, spicy evergreens, and gather cosily in little groups, four or five on a branch, talking over, in a gentle, gossiping way, their late exploits, or pluming their feathers for another foray.

The boys went slowly along among the scattered trees, looking carefully up in each as they passed, and trusting, as Howard said, that "if they came upon one nest, they'd be sure to find more, for these little fellows almost always build in neighbourhoods."

They got farther in, among the cedars and pines that belted the pasture, where it was stiller and more shady,-and by-and-by, in the first crotch of a cedar-tree, at least four. teen feet from the ground, Howard's observant eye caught a glimpse of a little nest, securely lodged, and built of grass and roots, and bits of pine and hemlock.

"There it is!" he cried, "and the thing is how to get at it! The little robbers are like the old scribes,—they like high seats in the synagogue. Steenie, can you shin ?"

Try me and see," replied Steenie. "We're like the three brothers that always went travelling together, in the old fairy tales," said Howard. "What one can't do another can. It'll be your turn next, Johnnie."

"I don't see what I can do," answered Johnnie, with a shade of dissatisfaction, as he looked up at Stephen, who had got, by this time, hand over hand, half way up the tree. "I can't climb much—yet,” he added, with an emphasis that seemed to imply he didn't mean to be a great while learning.

"Oh, you'll do it in a week as well as Steenie. Well, old fellow, what d'ye see?" "I see four eggs," replied Stephen. "The bird's off."

with dark brown spots, into the very middle of the soft crown of the cap; and down came Stephen, like a lamplighter along the side of his ladder.

Searching still from tree to tree, they found, within a short distance, two other nests, of like situation and construction, as Howard had predicted; and taking an egg from each, that each boy might have a specimen, they passed on, along the open ridge of high land beyond the trees, quite elated with their success.

It was a long tramp, and the least pleasant part of their excursion, over the backbone of the hill, round towards the western slope that brought them down into the edge of pleasant woods again, where they struck the course of the brook, and presently would have to cross the high road, which here passed through a fragrant grove of pine. Beyond, they would keep on, until they had made a large circuit, of which Mr. Osburn's house was very nearly the centre, and would emerge by the old oak, near Farmer Simmons's field, where Howard traced the nighthawk, and so home through the lane.

They were very glad when they reached the shelter of the wood by the brook, to sit down for awhile, and eat the luncheon from their basket, and have a drink of cool water from the tin cup that was tied to its handle. "I suppose," said Howard, as he threw himself down against the mossy knoll at the foot of a chestnut, "if we had looked about for them, we might have found chewinks' nests up there on the ridge. It's just the place for them. But the sun was so blazing hot, it would hardly pay. We'll go there some other time, when it's cooler, or earlier or later in the day. They hide their nests very cunningly on the ground. You might stumble right into one before you saw it."

the very rarest sort of nests to find. You never know where to look for them. They're just like any other patch of grass, and the birds generally keep so still and close,sometimes even if you're right upon them. However, Mrs. Lincoln skedaddled this time, and one of her little, blotchy eggs is safe in my box at home."

After the boys were well rested and refreshed, they set off once more across the brook, and plunged again beyond, into the deep, green wood, through which lay their circuit home, and among whose leafy nooks, they knew, were lodged invisibly, all about them, the little dwellings of which they had come in search.

There was something in the still beauty and seclusion of the forest that impressed Johnnie, who had lived nearly all his life in the bareness and bustle of city streets, very strongly and wonderfully. It was like walking, wide awake, into a dream. He saw and felt what heretofore had only come to him through his imagination; and a whole infinity of life and delight seemed opening before him, as he came to know what a world was lying close around him; that the real, veritable woods, where the birds and squirrels truly lived, and might any day be seen and watched, were thus within only a ten or fifteen minutes' ramble from his father's door.

He had been used to walk down to the Charles River, and look away, over its blue waters, to the shores of Roxbury and Cambridge, where “the country began," with a feeling that a great wealth and mystery lay somewhere there in the distance,-fields and forests, such as he read of in his story-books, but never expected to get really into, any more than he thought of ever travelling off to the westward far enough to put his hand upon the blue sky that seemed to drop down

"No nest," answered Howard. "They don't care for such conveniences. Two great, muddy-looking, speckled eggs, just tumbled together in the gravel. And I had the greatest luck, coming back, over the farmer's field. Just in the edge of his rye,

He had nearer glimpses sometimes, when he took summer drives with his father and mother; but such a spot as this he had never, in all the ten years of his life, been let loose in before.

The very breath of the forest, that came through oaks, and pines, and beeches, and

chestnuts, and over beds of fern and moss, touched him with a sort of awe, as if the solitudes it was born in had made it almost holy. It gave him the same feelingthough he did not analyze his sensations, or compare them together, as I am doingthat he once had, when he got into a great city church on a week-day, and explored the choir, and felt the organ pipes, and climbed up into the pulpit, and laid his hand, with a childish reverence, on the minister's great Bible.

The

All about them they heard, at intervals, the various songs of the forest birds. tiny wood-sparrow thrilled its simple strain unceasingly. The shy quail called out, from the underbrush, "More wet! more wet!" Now and then, the piercing" chee, chee!" of the oven-bird was reiterated in a shrill crescendo; and the vireo, with untiring warble, seemed to overflow in irrepressible music.

If John had come here merely for a walk, and the pleasantness of it, he would have just noticed, probably, that the birds were singing, and that would have been all. He would not have received separate impressions of the different notes. But as his companions distinguished them, and named the birds, one after another, through their recognition of the songs, his wonder and his interest grew greater; and he peered with curious eyes in bush and branch, to get, if he might, a sight-acquaintance with the little winged people.

"Look well under your feet, boys," said Howard, "and among the bushes. We shall very likely come upon a partridge nest; and if we could only light upon an oven-bird's!" They did find the former, and not very long after Howard had spoken; but they were not to have all their good luck in one day. The oven-bird's nest is by no means to be met with every time one walks in a wood.

The partridge nest was a little hollow scratched out under a bush, and lined with grass and leaves. The shy and crafty little mother, on the approach of their accidental footsteps, had scrambled hastily from off her eggs; and they first caught sight of her, limping about among the underbrush, and poking her head here and there, in every

direction but the right one, as if she really couldn't find her own nest.

66 Just go the way she does'nt," said Howard. "That's the way to manage cunning folks. You must always take them by contraries. She started from somewhere here."

And looking closely into the little thicket where they first surprised her, and away from which she was artfully trying to lead them, they found her treasure,—more than a dozen dainty, cream-coloured eggs.

Such abundance was hard for the boys to

resist.

"I'm sure," said Stephen, "my father would say this might be an exception to the rule. If we can take one egg where there are only two or three, I should think we might take three out of a dozen,—shouldn't you?"

Howard didn't know. He supposed they ought not to make the exceptions themselves.

John was looking with longing eyes at the nest; but for a minute or two he was quite silent. He was trying to settle the question between his judgment and his conscience. He could see no reason why they might not each take an egg, if Mr. Sellinger had not objected to taking two from the wren's nest, where there were seven. He felt very sure, if his mother were there, she would release him from his promise in this but still, it was a promise. John, with whatever other faults he might have, was honest.

case;

He put his hands in his pockets, and turned off rather quickly at last, speaking out his conclusion with a little gruffness that betokened the effort he had made.

"Any way," said he, "I can't have one. I promised my mother I would not take any from the same nest you did; and I suppose it don't make any difference whether there's two or twenty."

"Well," said Howard, "I suppose I might manage it, if I had a mind. I haven't made any promise; and my father always lets me judge whether it will do to take more than one. He knows I never rob a nest. But I don't like anything that looks like dodging."

So they came to the decision at last, to take but one; but to note the spot, and re

port the whole case at home, and if permission were given, to come back again for two more eggs.

This turned out to have been the very wisest way possible; for Mr. Sellinger and Mr. Osburn were convinced by this scrupulousness as to the letter of the promise that the boys might be trusted to keep it in its spirit; and they were allowed to govern themselves in all such cases thenceforth, by Howard's judgment on the spot. If they had taken an unauthorized latitude, on this first day of their birds'-nesting excursions, with however good a show of reason, their parents might have distrusted the tendency of the whole thing. As it was, by refrain ing from the inch, they gained the ell; and their honesty and good faith proved emphatically their best policy.

"What is that ?" exclaimed John, catching Howard by the arm and checking him in his walk, as he pointed to the trunk of a tall, dead pine, up which, round and round, -pausing here and there, and tapping sonorously upon the hollow stem,--something black and white was crawling, so close to the tree that at first Johnnie could hardly make out whether it really were a bird or not.

66 Oh, that's a woodpecker! Let me see! A hairy woodpecker, I think. I wish we could find his nest. They dig way into a dead branch, or a rotten fence-post. Sometimes you'll find one in a hollow stump. I'm afraid that fellow has got his pretty safe out of our reach, if it's anywhere about that old shell he's climbing."

The pine-tree was very tall, and had been broken off at the top. They could discover nothing that looked like an opening, as far as they could see up the sides of the stem; and Stephen thought it would be rather useless trying to "shin" after the woodpecker, who, while they were talking, had reached the very summit, and sat there, in proud inaccessibility, uttering a shrill whistle, as if of triumph.

"I wouldn't give up," said John. "We might hunt out his nest somewhere, maybe. I don't believe it's away up there."

"Oh, you'll soon find out," said Howard,

"that seeing a bird isn't finding his nest by any means. We see a good deal in this world that we never get at."

Which was a very sententious utterance for a boy of fourteen.

The wood-path they followed next led them down over a rough, rocky slope, through a thicket of savin and other bushes, till they came out into a lovely, wild, little opening, where, from between high banks to the left, poured down over its narrow bed of stones and moss one of the scores of little, singing, gurgling streams that, fed by hidden springs in the deep heart of the wood, strayed hither and thither, falling from hollow to hollow among the shadows, or glancing out suddenly into the sunlight, till they found their way to the brook par eminence, that gathered them all in, and bustled on to carry its accumulated wealth to the great river.

Ferns and herbs grew close down and into its edges, and tall wood-grasses bent down their lithe spires into its ripples, and drifted out their full length on the current; and the water drew to itself their wild juices, and turned a deep, clear coffee-brown; and so poured itself-rich in who knows what elixirs of healing-out and on among the sedges, between which it spread into little dusky pools, and seemed to pause a space to take breath and determine whither next.

"That's what old Aunt Patty Pulsifer would call 'yarb tea,'" said Stephen, as he bestrode the stream just where it leaped out from the last shady nook into the shallow. "Have a drink?" and he caught up a dipperful, and offered it to Johnnie.

John threw out his hand, with a backward movement that sent the dipper whirling up into an alder bush, and the water showering about in scattered drops, to find its level, and creep into the current again as best it might.

"Hallo, Johnnie!" cried out Howard, from a clump of bushes higher up. "Here's a chance for the youngest of the three brothers at last! Come here, will you?"

John hastened up to where Howard was standing, on a gray, mossy rock, above which, high over his head, swung from the outmost forked twig of a young maple-tree,