io8 DOGGED JACK.

 "For a month," answered Dick, "I only wish it
was to be a year. Oh! how delicious the air smells,"
he went on, drawing in with delight deep breaths
as he spoke.
 "Yes, isn't it nice ?" said Jack; and do you know
the lawn is to be mown in a few days, so you're just
in time for corncrakes' eggs. Do you remember,
Dick, we found two nests last year ?"
 "That I do! I've a garland of blown eggs from
them over the mantelpiece in my room at home;
but Polly is to have whatever eggs there are in the
lawn this year. Are you not, Polly?" he asked,
as the little girl joined them and clung to his arm
on her tip-toes.
 Yes, Dick, this is my year, but I'm not going to
blow my eggs. I'm going to set them under a hen, and
have a lot of darling little corncrakes. Oh! won't it
be fun to see them running about after a hen, with
their queer long legs !" said Polly, clapping her hands.
 But what will you do, old lady, if there isn't a hen
clucking just when you get the eggs? You know they
won't come out if you let them once get cold," said
Jack, with his superior wisdom.
 "Oh, I've settled all about that with nurse," an-
swered Polly. "If there's no hen clucking, we're going
to put them in a little basket, in a nest ever so soft
and warm made of wool. Nurse has a lot of wool