A Terrible Tomboy

ds with nice

n, gray moss, an

prying eye the

oss and lined wi

ther, and, bending up, formed a kind of armchair with a back to it. Below them the pink apple-blossom spread

the coming summer. Peggy and Bobby were out the whole day long, following their father about the farm, riding on the slow plough-horses, helping to

ing the mysteries of housekeeping and dairy-minding; for she was growing quite a nice little companion to Aunt Helen,

in a way that would have brought Aunt Helen's heart to her mouth if she had n

g off bits of twig, and throwing them at t

hool, and he's so proud of it, he wouldn't change it though a boy offered him five sticks of mint-rock and a pea-shoot

n the meadows by the riv

er the gorse common, and

ind any nest

I sh

you yo

ell you

I shall be twelve in November, so I oug

orn. 'Joe was up there last night, and he found twelve ne

say so at first? Are you

d tit's, with ever so many eggs in it. D

the hand is worth two in the bush, and if Joe really f

bidding, and to make a lively second to any scheme she might have in hand. Aunt Helen sometimes thought the two must have got changed, and that Peggy should have been the boy and Bobby th

atest objection to be called a tomboy-a term of reproach that had been

looked perfectly shocked when I harnessed the pony, though I told her Joe was milking, and there was no one else to come and do it; and when old Mr. Cooper saw me help Father to drive cows down the pasture, he popped out with "Miss Tomboy" at once, though he did say afterwa

ld, and loved pretty things and dainty ways as well as quieter Lilian; but it was a case of a dog with a bad name, for however indign

o high as the Welsh mountains, and were covered for the most part with gorse and rough grass, where the sheep and young bullocks were turned out to graze. It was rather a stif

d polished by the weather, that it made a natural sliding-board, down which it was delightful to toboggan at full speed. It seemed expressly formed for the enjoyment of small boys and girls, for as it lay across a corner, you had only to walk u

orn if they caught on a projecting angle; but what child ever thought of clothes when a twenty-foot slide might be enjoyed?

till a very persistent cuckoo in a little copse over the

outed Peggy. 'We

e stars had fallen from the sky and were shining in the fields instead. Little rabbits scuttled away before them into the hedgerows, and a cock pheasant, disturbed in his afternoon nap, flew w

mmer's nest just there, close

ou take one side of the tre

erhanging tussock of grass was the cosiest, cunningest nest in the world, and the yellowhammer herself sat

obbery. Mr. Vaughan was a keen naturalist, and had taught them to watch the birds in their haunts, but disturb them as little as

whispered Bobby. 'An

r the yellowhammer, and she flew

ot one of them a cuckoo's. You

five, but I swopped two of them w

ne; I believe she is watching us out of the elder-tre

the goat was tethered last year. He calls them bottle-tits, but it's just

e, it's scratching my very nose. Oh, look, Bobby! There goes one of the tits! I saw just whe

etition. It was made of the softest moss and lichens, fashioned together in the shape of a bottle with the neck down

s finger through the t

even or eight. I'll take two, one for you and one for me. They're t

or bottle-tits were rare in that neighbourhood, and they had long wished to find such a treasure. Joe had certainly not misled them, and Bo

n's household, hidden away in a bank, full of so many children that she surely resembled the old woman who lived in a shoe, and it was a marvel how she could remember which little chirping atom she

till calling loudl

would only build nests like other birds,

l the cuc

she'l

he change

he prepar

st, go sh

ed P

't said it all

cuckoo stays

the oldest man

d tell us where she lay

her face. It did not take Peggy long to find the neat little nest of twisted twigs and grass woven into the fork of a branch. Th

'come here, quick! I do believ

to Joe, who was wise in such lore, though he only knew the birds by their country names, and had never heard of such a science as ornithology. Quite elated with thei

shed, tumble-down building, standing in the midst of a negl

e,' confided Bobby, peeping through the hedge. 'But he woul

?' deman

a rage, and crossed her fingers at them, and in six weeks John broke his leg, and Evan had sore eyes all the winter. And once Joe and another boy were coming home very late at night p

heads. Joe would have run away from his own shadow. But if you're afraid, stay outside in the lane, for I'm going in to see if

he thick stems, feeling in every little hole where he could lay his hand. The large old chimney was so wide at the top that he found he could peep right down it, as if he were looking into a well, and

eyes and bad legs. Her one room was hung all round with plants in various stages of drying, and she was always ready to prescribe a remedy for an ailing cow or a sick child, generally at much profit to herself, whatever might be the benefit to the sufferer. She was bending over her iron pot now, stirring the concoction with a long-handled spoon. Bobby could see her quite

the hedge and away down the lane as fast as his sturdy legs could carry him. Peggy had been waiting in the garden, a

leys!' shrieked Betsy. 'Be off with yer, yer ill-mannered young good-for-naught; and if

escending on her head like hail, she managed to squirm out of Betsy's ungentle grasp, and fled after Bobby down the lane, followed

distance the pair sat down on a fence to get

. 'She was so fearfully angry I'm su

tell him. He'll quite expect us to break our a

rds on one leg like that,' said Peggy; for Bobby was execut

slinging a sack of flour on to a patient donkey who stood, with drooping ears, eyeing the burden which he must carry up far i

the stream, and the water, escaping from the race above, poured down by the side of the wheel in a foaming cataract. A dipper was hopping about from s

t us watch her. Perhaps she may

ved rapidly into the water, and, emerging at the other side of the pool, f

mp of moss; you can hardly tell it from the wall, only I see a little round hole at

plied Peggy stout

t h

oming too. You climbed the chimney, and it's my turn. J

ther; but Peggy was utterly fearless, and she had soon pulled herself to the top. Balanced there, she could easily re

te eggs! Look! I think I shal

tant the mill-wheel began to turn, and she was whirled f

ld just as she rose to the surface, and before she had drifted into the swifter current further on.

she gasped out, with the w

ully at his own wet garments. 'Let me take you into the house, and Mrs. Griffiths'll

ater-logged vessel that to hasten matters her rescuer picke

in the chimney-corner, but she jumped up in a

dead? Lay her out on the parlour sofa. Sarah Grac

upstairs, and out of her wet clothes. Ten minutes later Peggy sat on the settle by the kitchen fire, an odd little figure, attired

must have one too, bless his heart! He's as white as my apr