A GRAVE CONSULTATION,—"I SHALL LEAVE THEM OUT OF MY CHERRY PARTY."


[enlarge]

Yes, the rob-in's nest had

been robbed—their own

rob-in's nest un-der the bush,

with its dar-ling lit-tle eggs of

the true robin's blue! The

nest was pulled out and tip-

ped on the ground, and the

love-ly eggs were gone.

"I know well e-nough," said

Beth, "that those were the

ver-y eggs that your broth-er

Jim-my was a-car-ry-ing a-bout

strung on a straw, Sat-ur-day

af-ter-noon."

"Yes," said Bes-sie, sad-ly,

"he and Dick must have found

our bush and looked un-der

it, and pulled out the nest. If

they weren't my broth-ers, I'd

nev-er speak to them in this

world any more, no, nev-er and

nev-er! I'm sor-ry they had

to come in-to the coun-try with

us, they do so much dam-age!"

"O, you'll have to speak to

them," said Beth; "but when

peo-ple do cru-el things I do

think it ought not to go as if

they had done on-ly right! I

think they ought to be left out

a while, an' I shall leave them

out of my cher-ry par-ty."

Jim-my and Dick were Bes-

sie's broth-ers; but she a-greed,

and the boys got no cards for

the cher-ry par-ty.

"It is be-cause you broke up

the rob-in's nest," said Bes-sie

se-vere-ly. "It is to make you

feel that girls don't like cru-el-

ty to birds!"