Frank and Fanny | Page 9

down the
meadows, to hunt for more this afternoon, and if you'll come, we'll give
you some."
"No, indeed; I wouldn't go for any thing; and I do wish you would let
the poor birds be. Just think how badly you'd feel if you was a bird, and
had a nice little nest of your own, to find your eggs all stolen."
"Ho, ho," laughed Jack, "here's a young parson, preaching to me, who
wasn't too good to help himself to a bird, a few weeks ago, when the
old ones did all they could to keep him away from the nest. Why didn't
you think then how you'd feel if you'd been the bird?--ha?"
Frank did not answer; but he thought that he had suffered sufficiently

for his thoughtlessness, without being taunted with it. He tried to
persuade Jack not to rob any more birds' nests; but Jack only laughed at
him, and told him to run home to his sister, like a good little boy. Frank
was the oldest, and he felt rather vexed at the sneering way in which
Jack spoke; but he made no angry answer.
At school time, Frank and Fanny went to school again; but Jack played
truant, as he had done in the morning, and went down in the meadows,
with the boys, whom he had told Frank he was going with.
Miss Norton asked Frank, if he knew what had kept Jack away from
school all day, and he repeated to her, as nearly as he could, the
conversation which had taken place between them that noon.
The next morning, when Jack came into school rather late, Miss Norton
called him up to her, and told him to read out loud, this piece, from the
Village Reader.
"HAVE YOU SEEN MY DARLING NESTLINGS?"
A Mother robin cried: "I cannot, cannot find them, Though I've sought
them far and wide
"I left them well this morning, When I went to seek their food; But I
found upon returning, I'd a nest, without a brood.
"Oh, have you naught to tell me To ease my aching breast, About my
tender offspring, That I left within my nest?
"I have called them in the bushes, And the rolling stream beside: Yet
they come not at my bidding And I fear they all have died."
"I can tell you all about them," Said a little wanton boy, "For 'twas I
that had the pleasure Your nestlings to destroy.
"But I did not think their mother Her little ones would miss, Or ever
come to hail me With a wailing sound like this.
"I did not know your bosom Was formed to suffer woe, And mourn

your murdered offspring, Or I had not grieved you so.
"I ever shall remember, The plaintive sounds I've heard; And never'll
kill a nestling To pain another bird."
Jack was very much confused when he commenced reading. As he read
on, he looked more and more ashamed, and when he finished, his face
was almost crimson.
Miss Norton was glad to see this, for she thought that it showed, that he
was not entirely hardened; so she suffered him to go to his seat, without
saying any more to him, hoping that this would be a sufficient reproof.
Before school was out, at noon, however, all Jack's mortification had
vanished, and in its stead, he indulged in very angry feelings towards
Frank for he was sure that Frank had told of him.
"I'll fix him," he said to his seat-mate, Harry Day, a merry little fellow,
whose roguish blue eyes looked quite capable of assisting where there
was any mischief going on.
"What'll you do?" said Harry.
"Why, I'll get him mad, and then I'll lick him; and I know how I'll get
him mad." So Jack, in accordance with his wicked resolution, wrote in
very large letters upon a slip of paper, 'BOY-GIRL;' on another slip, he
wrote, 'GIRL-BOY,' and giving Harry the one he had first written, he
told him to pin it on to Fanny's back, when they stopped in the entry, to
get their bonnets and caps. At the same time, he slily pinned the other
on Frank's roundabout. So when Frank and Fanny went along out of
school, as usual, the little children, amused by the slips of paper, ran
after them, some calling, 'boy-girl,' and others, 'girl-boy,'
Frank did not know what all this meant; but he kept on without looking
back.
"Look behind you," cried Harry Day, as he ran up to Fanny. Jack kept
some distance behind, and said nothing.

"Look behind you, I say," shouted Harry again.
Fanny was turning to look, when Frank said to her in a low tone,
without moving his head,
"Don't look around, Fanny, and don't mind what they call