Frank and Fanny | Page 9

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 us, for I don't care."
[Illustration: JACK MILLS'S TRICK.]
So they kept on, side by side, the children still calling after them, and when they got away from the school house, Jack's voice was heard among the rest, shouting, 'tell-tale,' 'girl-baby,' and other provoking nicknames.
Frank took no notice of them, until his sister stooped down to pick a flower, and as she did so, he saw the paper on her back.
"Who did this?" he said, and as he turned toward the children, he saw Jack throwing a stone. The stone flew past him, hitting his sister in the face. Fanny screamed, and the blood started from her nose.
Jack ran, and Frank's first impulse was to spring after him; but he did not know how badly his sister might be hurt, and so he staid with her, and wiped the blood from her face. The children crowded around, and Harry Day unpinned the pieces of paper, for he felt ashamed, for the