Stuffing the Crossbills.--The proposed Yacht.--An impaled Woodcock.
Frank led the way up stairs, and unlocking the door they entered the
room, and piling up some brushwood in the grate they lit it, and soon
had a roaring fire. The room now presented a very cheerful appearance. A
large window at one end looked out over the glittering Broad. The room
itself was plainly furnished with a few deal chairs and a table, and at
one side of it was an old-fashioned bureau, in the drawers of which the
boys' natural history collections were stored. Around the room were
several shelves, on which were some very creditably stuffed birds,
flower-pots filled with mould and covered with gauze bent over cane
arches, the use of which will presently appear, and a good number of
books on natural history, chiefly of a cheap and popular kind.
Frank got out a box containing knife-blades of various sizes fastened
into handles of wood, two pairs of scissors, pliers, and other tools
useful or necessary for skinning or stuffing birds; while Jimmy Brett
took down a book on birds, and turned to the account of the crossbill;
and as Frank was busy at one end of the table skinning the birds, Jimmy
at the other end kept up a running commentary on his book for the
benefit of his friend, in the following manner:--
"There is a lot about crossbills here, Frank. They are rare, but they
have been found at different times and in different months of the year
in many parts of the kingdom. They vary greatly in size as well as in
colour, according to age, sex, and the time of the year. They are
yellow, red, green, or brown at different times, so if it were not for
their cross bills it would be rather hard to distinguish them. There are
two pictures of them here; one has a rose-coloured back and red-brown
wings, and the other has a green back and brown wings. The beaks curve
and cross each other, and appear to be particularly suited for breaking
open the cones of fir-trees and picking out the seeds, and they will cut
open apples and other fruit to get at the pips. They come generally in
the winter, but often stay until the spring, and then they may breed
here, although it is very seldom that their nests are found. They breed
in Norway and Sweden, and nest very early in the year, and their nest
seems to be like a missel thrush's, and is placed in fir-trees. Their
eggs are white with just a touch of blue or green, and spotted with
brown spots."
[Illustration: CROSSBILL.]
"There, that is all that seems to be worth noticing, but we have got a
prize worth having. I am afraid they will not stop and breed. There are
not enough pine woods about, and they appear to be fond of going from
place to place, so that it is not likely they will be here in the
spring."
While he talked, Frank quickly and skilfully skinned and cleaned the
birds, and then he painted the inside of the skins with a solution of
corrosive sublimate dissolved in spirits of wine, which is a most
excellent preservative and much more cleanly to handle than arsenical
soap. Then he loosely stuffed them with cotton-wool, smoothed the
feathers, and placed them on a shelf to dry.
"Now, Frank," said Jimmy plaintively, "what _are_ you going to do with
that young larch-tree? I have been very patient all this time, so you
may as well tell me now."
"Well, Jimmy, I have thought of a grand idea. You are the inventive
genius of us two, and I usually carry things out; but I have invented
something now which we must both help to carry out. What do you think of
having a yacht, Jimmy--a large yacht, so that we could sail all over the
Broad, and down the rivers, and all over the country, and fish and
birdnest, and naturalize, and shoot wildfowl to our hearts' content?
What do you think of that, my boy?"
"It would be an awfully jolly thing, no doubt; but as far as Hickling
Broad goes, it is too shallow for any yacht. Why, except in the Channel,
it is not more than four feet deep in any part, large as it is; and
parts of it are only two feet deep, so that if we had a yacht we should
stick fast directly. Besides, how are we to get a yacht?"
"Make one."
"How? It will be impossible."
"We could not make a yacht of the usual shape, and if we could, it would
not suit our purposes. What I propose is that we should build a double
yacht. Just listen while I explain, and don't interrupt. We will make
two long pontoons, pointed at both ends, and connect the two by
cross-pieces, on which we can lay a deck and build a small, low cabin.
Such a boat would not draw more than a foot of water, and to make her
sail to windward we should have a drop keel or centre board, which we
could let down or draw up according to the depth of the water. Then I
think a lug sail and mizen would suit her best. We will build her
ourselves. And inch deal is cheap enough, so it cannot cost so much. I
have saved my pocket-money to buy a lot of books, but I can do without
them for a time"----
"I have a couple of sovereigns," eagerly interrupted Jimmy.
"That is right; then we can do it swimmingly. We will build her in old
Bell's yard, and he will lend us what tools we have not got."
Jimmy warmly welcomed the idea, and, getting out some paper and pencils,
they began to draw plans and estimates of cost with great enthusiasm.
"And now," said Frank, "we will go and see Bell and ask him what he
thinks of it."
Bell was a very eccentric old man, who lived on the shores of a small
and winding creek, which ran up from the Broad. By trade he was a
tailor, but he united to this the very different occupation of a
boat-builder, and filled up his spare time with fishing and shooting
wildfowl. He was a close observer of the habits of beasts, birds, and
fishes, and was a great favourite with the boys, whose visits he liked
and encouraged.
Stepping into the boat that lay moored in the boat-house, the two boys
rowed across a bend of the Broad and up the creek to his cottage. The
old man was at work in his yard, repairing the bottom of a boat, while
his old wife might be seen at the window of the house putting the
finishing-touches to the Sunday coat of some village beau.
"Good morning, Bell; it is a fine day."
"Good morning, young master. Yes, it is a fine day, but it will be finer
to-morrow. Yon robin sings higher in the poplar this afternoon than he
did this morning, and that is a sure sign that finer weather is coming."
"I never knew that before," said Frank.
"No, you have not lived so long in the world as I have," replied Bell;
"but I am glad you have come, for I have a very strange sight to show
you. Look here."
He went into the cottage, and returned, bringing with him a dry and
withered branch, one end of which had been torn and slit, probably by
the wind, so that it was a sharp and jagged spike. On the end of this
was impaled a fine woodcock, dead of course, and with the sharp piece of
wood imbedded in its breast.
"Poor thing, how did it get into that fix?" Jimmy exclaimed.
"Well, sir, you see it was in this way. The birds, as you know, are now
coming from abroad--I can hear great flocks of them at night sometimes
as they fly overhead calling to one another--and last night you know was
pitch dark, so that this woodcock, coming over at a great speed, flew
against this sharp branch in the dark and spiked itself. When I got up
this morning I saw it in that oak-tree, and I sent my boy up to cut off
the branch, and knowing you would like to have it, I kept it, just as it
was."
"We are very much obliged to you, Bell, and we will mount it and stuff
it, just as it is. It will be an interesting thing to add to our museum,
won't it, Jimmy?"
"I have often heard of birds flying against the telegraph wires and
being killed in the dark, and of their dashing against windows, either
attracted by the light, or not seeing the glass, but I have not heard of
anything so curious as this. One cannot help feeling sorry for the poor
bird. After a long and tiring journey, and expecting to find all its
troubles over, to meet with a sad end like this!"
[Illustration: WOODCOCK.]
The boys then unfolded their plan to Bell. Anything out of the common
was sure to interest him, and hence, though he was not so sanguine of
success as the boys were, yet he thought it might be done, and offered
to help them as much as he could, and to let them use his yard.
"There is nothing like making a beginning," said Frank, who was quick
and impetuous in action, and he took off his coat and set to work
vigorously to clear a space close by the water's edge, where the keel of
a yacht might be laid, while Jimmy went through their calculations of
cost with Bell.