Bob thought for a minute, and then, with a sort of shout, exclaimed, "Why, Monday is Founder's Day, and we always have a holiday then. Will you be busy on Monday?" he added, looking up at the keeper.

"No," he answered; "what time can you be here ?"

"Oh! by one o'clock, at all events; if that will suit you."

"Very well, then. I'll be at this stile about one o'clock; and it is very likely I shall be able to show you something in the woods, too, if you have time."

The two boys now wished him good afternoon with more thanks, and set off at a good pace homewards. They had plenty of time to remove all traces of water and bog, and presented themselves, perfectly clean and neat in hair and dress, when the bell summoned them to evening roll-call and their supper.

CHAPTER IV.

Walk the Second-Robert Banks-Dabchicks, Coots, Waterhens, Reed-warblers, their Nests and Eggs.

FRIDAY and Saturday passed, with their routine of school tasks and duties; Sunday, too, passed, with its sermon from Dr. Noble, which almost all the elder lads looked to with interest, and of which not a few among them tried to make a sort of sketch, to be looked at in after days. And then came Monday. The morning was dull, and our two young friends were quite disposed to feel assured that it would rain, and that their excursion—on which they were reckoning so much— would fall through. However, the clouds broke away before they were liberated from the two hours' work which was required of them on occasion of any such holiday as the present. The time that must elapse before they could set off to the appointed place was spent by them in neatly affixing the eggs they had obtained in their last walk to cards with strong gum-water, and adding

a name-label to each card, written in a very neat and methodical manner by Bob. The eggs in question had been very carefully blown, and dried, at the first leisure time after being brought safely home; and now, when they were carefully adjusted to their proper places, they were set safely aside, for the gum to harden, until their owners' return, when they would be at once inducted into their proper place in the collection; which was now found to number nearly one hundred eggs, belonging to nearly sixty different species of birds: for they had no duplicate specimens of some seven or eight kinds of eggs.

In their eagerness to lose no time, when once they were at liberty to set out-for Dr. Noble made no scruple of giving them the required permission-they arrived at the stile fully a quarter of an hour before the gamekeeper. Bob filled up the interval by telling Jack something about that person. His name, he said, was Robert Banks. He was born at the place where Mr. Benson (Bob's father) lived, and he had spent his youth there; and, as a lad, he had often been made useful by Mr. Benson's gamekeeper in catching rabbits, tending the dogs and the ferrets, carrying the gamebag, and marking for the gentlemen who were out shooting, and so on. When about eighteen years old he had been induced by

an uncle, who was master of a coasting vessel, to go to sea. He had spent nearly two years on board a coaster and then shipped in an Indiaman, in which he had made three or four voyages, conducting himself to the entire satisfaction of his officers, who had already taken care to advance him as far as his age would permit. And as he had taken pains to keep up what he had learnt at school, and to improve himself by reading, they had not only helped him by putting useful books in his way, but had promised him their interest to obtain him a higher position than that of a common seaman whenever an opportunity might offer.

"He was in the ship Samarang," Bob continued, "homeward bound, about fifteen years ago, and my uncle Thomas was a passenger in her that same voyage. A violent storm came on, and they were sadly tossed about for the greater part of two days. Just as they thought the worst of it was over, and that their good ship-which had behaved splendidly—had weathered it, a tremendous thunderstorm came on, and an awful flash of lightning struck her. Her mainmast was completely shivered and her foremast damaged, and she speedily became unmanageable. The storm, though much abated, was still violent enough to make their danger very great. The wreck still hampered them; they had lost several of the crew

by the lightning and the fall of the mast; the sea was very high, and the wind violent. Robert Banks stood by his captain and the second officer (the others were lost,) nobly; and by his influence with the crew, and his exertions, brought most of the men, who, from the violence of the shock, believed nothing less than that the vessel was instantly about to founder, and were half helpless with consternation, to second him in obeying their officers' orders. They were thus enabled, at last, to cut away the hamper; and eventually-the storm continuing most providentially to subside-to get her before the wind; but not before she had so strained herself in her rollings as to have sprung at least one serious leak. It was not till the next day that the captain was able to ascertain his position, and he then found that, if he could succeed in keeping afloat, and could make his course a little more to the southward, he might have a fair chance of falling in with some home-bound ship or other, or possibly even reach a port. However, neither of these contingencies was to be realized for that night, the watch being utterly exhausted by the fatigues of the storm and their subsequent spells of pumping, betrayed their charge and fell asleep; and it was only when Banks-unable to sleep from the pain of two ribs which he had got broken in his exertions the previous day, but