flow Willie made a Bird of Agnes. 183

 

but even if he could get Agnes up the bare bole of
an elm or fir, he could not trust her to go scramb-
ling about the branches. On the other hand,
wherever he could go, he could surely somehow
help Agnes to go. Having gathered a thought or
two, he went back to bed.

The very next evening he set to work and spent
the whole of that and the following at his bench,
planing, and shaping, and generally preparing for
a construction, the plan of which was now clear in
hishead, At length, on the third evening, he carried
half a dozen long poles, and wheeled several
barrowfuls of short planks, measuring but a few
inches. over two feet, down to the clump of trees.

At the foot of the largest elm he began to dig,
with the intention of inserting the thick end of
one of the poles; but he soon found it impossible
to get half deep enough, because of the tremendous
roots of the tree, and giving it up, thought of a
better plan.

He set off to the smithy, and bought of Mr
Willett some fifteen feet of iron rod, with a dozen
staples. Carrying them home to his small forge,
he cut the rod into equal lengths of a little over
two feet, and made a hook at both ends of each
length. Then he carried them down to the elm,
and drove six of the staples into the bole of the tree
at equal distances all round it, a foot from the
ground; the others he drove one into each of the