He pointed with a hand upwards to a nest; then he let go both hands from the tree, holding on with his knees in a spirit of bravado.
"A small bird!" echoed the girl. "Where is it—show it to me. I walk here every day and never have I observed it."
"Fei-la—it has flown," he answered abruptly. "My supposition was incorrect. Evidently it was sufficiently grown to fly. It is very difficult to judge birds at this season."
"Up there was it that you saw it?" queried the girl again with persistence because she was a woman.
"Yes, in the tree," answered Wang the Ninth rather rudely. Then something prompted him to laugh suddenly in his spontaneous way.
"What I have just told you is not true, at least not entirely," he remarked, picking at the bark with his fingers. "Evidently there are birds in all trees where there are nests—but I myself came to look over the wall."
Below an exclamation.
"To look over the wall! That is not a good business. You will surely be beaten if you are caught. This indeed is an impudent boy. But why did you wish to look over?"
"Because for many days I had observed the small door and was unable to understand why it was locked."
Again the girl gave an exclamation.