up the nuts. And if I wanted them any other time in the day, a few taps on the feeding tree with my hammer-I used an old bullet-mould, I remember, for that purpose-would generally bring them. They would even follow me to different trees about the garden; and before I left, I used to throw nuts up in the air to them, which they flew after, and almost always caught, with their bills, before they fell back to the ground. Another pair, at another house, I enticed in the same way to come and feed on the window-sill of the library; but I was not so much there, and they soon discontinued the practice. One dodge I tried, used to make the whole party at breakfast laugh heartily. Other birds soon began to come besides the nuthatches, particularly two or three sorts of titmice; the cole-mouse, the blue tit, and the ox-eye, especially the first and last. Robins and hedge-sparrows, too, often came. The nuthatches pitched into all these, and not even the plucky robins dared show fight; although they succeeded in putting all the rest to flight. The tomtits nibbled at the nuts-they couldn't be said to peck at them-and it took them a long time to get as much as half a nut. So they hadn't much more chance to get a fair share than the stork at the fox's house in the fable. So I tried what threading a few nuts on strong glover's

NUTHATCHES.

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thread, stretched between the tree and the window, would do. The nuthatches, of course, tried to get them; but they soon gave up the effort in disgust, for they couldn't hold comfortably by the thread, and they couldn't work at the nuts without some purchase for their feet. The tits-especially the blue ones on the other hand, clung by their fine claws, and hanging with their back downwards, worked away at the nuts untiringly. To be sure, when those placed specially for the nuthatches were all removed, those birds sometimes attacked the little nun that was hanging nearest the tree. Whereupon the nun would cut to the tree, pursued by the nuthatch, round boughs, over them, under them, round the tree, till at last the persecutor finding his chase quite futile, gave it up, and the small nun returned quietly to her feast. The two nuthatches," he concluded, " remained about the garden for months afterwards; and the very next time I went there, I saw and heard them nearly the first thing in the morning. And didn't they get a feast of nuts for the few days I was there?"

Just as Bob concluded his history, Miss Spencer came up, and the walk was accomplished to the water-edge; and there, with the ebbing tide lip-lipping against her cutwater and bows, lay the pretty "True Blue," with her jaunty air and clean sides

and decks, and snow-white sails tightly lashed to the proper spars. The young people were all on capital terms by this time, and lengthening out their walk in the interest of their new acquaintanceship, found on their return, that they had but just time sufficient to prepare for a becoming appearance at the dinner-table.

CHAPTER XV.

Egg-Hunting and Sea-Fishing - Redshank's, Common Tern's, Oyster-Catcher's, Gull's, Ring-Dotterel's, and Reeve's EggsCodlings, Skate, and Grey Mullet caught.

WHEN the party were once more assembled in the dining-room, Mr. Spencer informed the two boys that, among the other letters with which he had been busy when they went out into the garden, was one with the contents of which they were in some degree interested. It was from Bob's elder brother. Mr. Spencer had asked him to come over at the same time with Bob and Jack, for the purpose of joining in an expedition which he (Mr. Spencer) thought all would equally enjoy, and which he had proposed to commence after two or three days spent at Hareborough. This expedition was nothing less than a voyage to the north, possibly as far as to Leith; the object being to visit Flamborough Head, St. Abb's Head, and the Bass Rock, all of which places he knew would be exceedingly interesting to Bob and Jack, as the nesting-places of so many sea-birds; while the

excitement of the sea-voyage, he thought, would be pleasurable to the elder Benson, as well as to the two boys. However, Edward Benson had been unluckily engaged, and Mr. Spencer very reluctantly had given up his plan; and therefore had not said anything at all about it to his young guests, so that they might be saved the disappointment they might otherwise have felt. Most unexpectedly, Edward Benson had written to say, his engagement had been postponed for a month, and he was at liberty to accept Mr. Spencer's invitation, and most glad to do so, if it were not too late. In the hope that it would not be so, he should put himself into the train which reached Dunchester at 6.30, and hoped to be at Hareborough by an hour later.

"So," said Mr. Spencer, "James has gone with bay Bessy and the dog-cart to meet him, and soon after we have finished dinner he will be here; ready, I dare say, for anything we shall have spared him."

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But, Mr. Spencer," cried Bob, hardly believing his ears, "do you really mean that we are all going in the 'True Blue' to St. Abb's Head, and the Bass Rock? Oh, Jack, won't it be jolly?"

"Well," replied Mr. Spencer, "that was my plan. We shall see when your brother comes