iſhneſs or weakneſs. Saying ſo, ſhe put her foot on the bird's head, turning her own another way.
They walked on; when Caroline remarked, that the neſtlings deprived of their parents, would now periſh; and the mother began to flutter in her hand as they drew near the hedge; though the poor creature could not fly, yet ſhe tried to do it. The girls, with one voice, begged Mrs. Maſon to let them take the neſt, and provide food in a cage, and ſee if the mother could not contrive to hop about to feed them. The neſt and the old mother were inſtantly in Mary's handkerchief. A little opening was left to admit the air; and Caroline pepped into it every moment to ſee how they looked. I give you leave, ſaid Mrs. Maſon, to take thoſe birds, becauſe an accident has rendered them helpleſs; if that had not been the caſe, they ſhould not have been confined.
They had ſcarecly reached the next field, when they met another boy with a neſt in his hand, and on a tree near him ſaw the
