Hark! somebody is letting off a gun! They are shooting the poor birds. Here is a bird dropped down just at your feet. It is all bloody. Poor thing! how it flutters! Its wing is broken. It cannot fly any further. It is going to die. What bird is it? It is a partridge. Are you not sorry, Harry? It was alive a little while ago.
Bring the ladder, and set it against the tree. Now bring a basket. We must gather apples. No, you cannot go up the ladder; you must have a little basket, and pick up apples under the tree. Shake the tree. Down they come. How many have you got? We will have an apple-dumpling. Come, you must help to carry the apples into the apple-chamber. Apples make cyder. You shall have some baked pears and bread for supper, and some cyder. Are these apples? No, they are quinces; they will make marmalade. Do not be in such haste, little boy; you shall have some cyder directly. You must not drink much.
OCTOBER
The leaves are falling off the trees now, and the flowers are all gone. No, here is an African marigold, and a China-aster, and a Michaelmas daisy. And here are a few roses left.
Will you have any nuts? Fetch the nut-crackers. Peel this walnut. I will make you a little boat of the walnut-shell, and you can swim it in a pan. We must get the grapes, or else the birds will eat them all. Here is a bunch of black grapes. Here is a bunch of white ones. Which will you have? Grapes make wine.
What bird have you got there? It is dead, but it is very pretty. It has a scarlet eye, and red, and green, and purple feathers. It is very large. It is a pheasant. He is very good to eat. We will pull off his feathers, and tell Betty Cook to roast him. Here is a hare too. Poor puss! the hounds did catch her.