"Come," said he, "let us take a flight; if we sit here sad for long, it will be of no use; the ills that we have must be borne, and the more we bear them, the more ease we shall have. If poor Rob is dead, he will have no more pain; and if he is not, we fly here and there so much, there is a chance we shall get news of him; might not these young ones fly with us to our friends? If we set out soon and let them rest by the way, I think they may do it."

This was great joy to each one of the young birds, for they had a great wish to go there, and so it was their plan to go at once, and they went there by short flights; at length they came to the court, just after the rest of the birds who each day were fed were gone. "Now," said the cock, "stop for a time, and let me ask you, Dick, Flaps, and Pecks, to act

as you should do; hop but where you see your Ma and me hop, and do not touch a thing but what is thrown to you."

"Stay, Pa," said Dick, "my plumes are quite rough."

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And so are mine," said Flaps.

"Well, smooth them, then," said he, “but don't stand and waste time."

Pecks was right in a thrice, but the rest were more slow; so the old birds would not wait for them more, and flew through the sash; the rest went close to him, and, to the great joy of Fred, got on the cloth, where they met a joy they had not hoped for; for who should they find there as a guest but the poor lost Rob.

This was, you may be sure, great joy to all, and the scene was one for thought and not for words. The cock sang a loud song of thanks;

the hen gave chirp on chirp, she bows her head, claps her wings, basks on the cloth, joins her beak to Rob's, and then rubs Fred's hand. As for the young ones, they ask Rob a great deal of things; but as he did not like to stop his Pa's song, he said they must wait to hear all he had to tell for a while.

But it is now time to tell you who read this tale how it came to pass. So I shall in the next page let you know by what means Rob was in the place and state they found him.

CHAP-TER XVI.

You may call to mind, my young friends, that Fred got from Mrs. Ben-son leave when their tasks were done, that he and Har-ri-et should go in search of the Red-breasts; so as soon as the

air was nice and cool, she took them with her, and came just at the time when the old birds had got their young back to the nest. Rob was then left, and none with him, and so he hops here and there, and as he had no fear of ill, he got right in the walk.

Fred saw him far off, and with joy cries out, "There's one of them!" and his Ma had not time to see him, ere he ran to the place and put his hand on it with joy that he had caught it. His hand hurt Rob's wing, who sent forth a sad cry, on which Fred let him go, and said, "I won't hurt you poor thing."

Har-ri-et, who saw him catch the bird, ran as fast as she could to tell him he must not keep it, and saw, as Rob hops away, that he was lame, on which she thought that Fred had hurt him; but when he told her that his wing

hung down when he first saw him, Mrs. Ben-son said it was most like that he got lame by some hurt which would not let him go with the rest to the nest; "and if that is the case," said she, "it will be kind to take care of him."

he

Fred was glad to hear her say so, and begs may bring him home with him.

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Yes," said his Ma, "if you can take him safe."

"Shall I take him, Ma'am?" said Joe. "He can lie at his ease in my hat."

This was a good scheme, and they all thought so; so Fred took some of the soft grass, which was mown down, to put in the hat, and poor Rob took his place safe in it; and when he knew in whose hands it was his lot to fall, he felt great joy, for he thought he had a good chance to get great care, as