To the Rescue.--A Long-tailed Tit's Nest.--A Shower of Feathers.
When they had made all snug, they set out for a walk through the town,
and as the quay-side was not so pleasant as the open country, they
determined not to sleep on board the yacht this night, but to sleep at
an hotel. They therefore went to one by the beach and engaged beds. They
then ordered and ate an uncommonly good dinner, at the close of which
the waiter intimated to them that he had never seen any young gentlemen
before who had such good appetites. After a due amount of rest they set
out for a stroll. Presently they met a boy with a nest in his hand,
which was evidently that of a long-tailed tit. They watched the boy
join a gang of other boys, and after some conversation they took a
number of tiny white eggs out of the nest, and arranged them on the
ground in a row.
"By Jove, they are going to play 'hookey smash' with them. What
heathens!" said Frank. The boy who had brought the eggs now took a stick
and made a shot at one of the eggs, and smash it went. Another boy took
a stick and prepared to have his turn.
"I say, I can't stand this," said Frank. "Let us make a rush and rescue
the eggs," and suiting the action to the word, he ran forward, and with
a well-applied shove of his foot to the inviting target which a stooping
boy presented to him, he sent him rolling into the gutter. Jimmy picked
up the nest and eggs, and then the three found themselves like Horatius
and his two companions when they kept the bridge against Lars Porsena
and his host, "facing fearful odds" in the shape of a dozen yelling
street-boys.
Frank was a big lad for his age, and he stood in such an excellent
boxing position, his blue eyes gleaming with such a Berserker rage, and
Jimmy and Dick backed him so manfully, that their opponents quailed, and
dared not attack them save with foul language, of which they had a
plentiful supply at command. Seeing that their enemies deemed discretion
the better part of valour, our three heroes linked themselves arm in
arm, and marched home with their heads very high in air, and with a
conscious feeling of superiority.
"What are you laughing at, Dick?" said Frank.
"At the cool way in which you robbed those fellows of their eggs. You
had no right to do so. They _will_ wonder why you did it."
"Let them wonder. I was so savage at their spoiling those beautiful eggs
in such a brutal manner. At the same time I acknowledge that it wasn't
my business, no more than if it were their own ha'pence they were
smashing, but all the same I feel that we have done a very meritorious
action."
They now found themselves at the quay-side, and they stopped there some
time, being much struck by the scene which presented itself to them as
they gazed out over Breydon Water. The tide was flowing in rapidly, and
Breydon was one vast lake, at the further end of which, five miles away,
the rivers Waveney and Yare joined it, and, at the end near Yarmouth,
the Bure, down which they had just sailed. The breeze had risen to a
gale, and as it met the incoming tide it raised a sharp popply sea. The
sun was setting red and splendid over the far end behind a mass of black
fiery-edged cloud, through rents in which the brilliant light fell upon
the tossing waste of waters, and tipped each wave-crest with crimson.
Above the cloud the sky was of a delicate pale green, in which floated
cloudlets or bars of gold, which were scarcely more ethereal-looking
than the birds which breasted the gale with wavering flight. Out of the
sunset light there came a gallant array of vessels making for the
shelter of Yarmouth. Dark-sailed wherries with their peaks lowered and
their sails half mast high, and yachts with every possible reef taken
in, all dashing along at a great pace, notwithstanding the opposing
tide, and each with a white lump of foam at its bows. The parallel rows
of posts which marked the sailing course stood out gaunt and grim, like
warders of the sunset gates, and the whole scene was wild and
impressive. It so moved Dick, that when they got back to their hotel he
sat down, and tried his hand at making some verses descriptive of it.
They are not good enough to quote, but Frank and Jimmy both thought them
very good, only they were not impartial critics.
As they were sitting in the coffee-room that evening, Jimmy said that he
should like to see how many feathers the long-tailed tit's nest
contained. It looked a regular hatful, and he wondered how the tiny bird
could have had the patience to collect so many. So he drew a small table
aside, and sat himself down at it with the nest before him, and then set
to work to count the feathers, putting them in a pile at his right side
as he did so. Dick joined him, and the two worked away for a long time
at the monotonous task of counting. The feathers as they were piled up
loosely on the table formed a big feather-heap.
Frank grew tired of watching them, and a wicked idea entered his head.
The window near which they sat encountered the whole force of the wind.
Frank lounged up to it, and, under cover of a question, undid the latch.
"How many are there?" he asked.
"We have counted 2,000, and there are about 300 more. We shall soon
finish."
"Shall you, indeed," said Frank, as he opened the window. The wind
rushed in, and catching the light feathers scattered them all over the
room, which was full of people, some reading, some eating, and some
enjoying a nightcap of toddy. The feathers stuck everywhere--on the
food, in the glasses, sticking on hair and clothes, and tickling noses,
and causing universal consternation.
[Illustration: LONG-TAILED TIT AND EGG.]
"Here's a pretty kettle of fish!" said Jimmy, looking up in dismay. "How
could you, Frank?"
But Frank had vanished out of the window laughing incontinently, and
Dick and Jimmy were left alone to bear the storm of expostulations and
reproaches with which they were favoured by the company, who thought the
whole affair was premeditated.