CHAPTER V.
JACK MILLS.
I should not omit to tell you, Mrs. Hamilton was bringing Fanny up to be very industrious, both with her sewing and knitting, and Mr. Hamilton taught Frank to weed the garden, and saw wood, and gather chips; and the children were as busy as bees, when at work, and as happy as birds, when at play.
I have told you that Frank seldom played with any one beside his sister; but sometimes when she was busy, after his work was dune, he would cross over a corner of the orchard, to a little brown house that stood near by, to play with a boy that lived there, with his mother. Mrs. Mills was a widow; but Jack was very rough and wild, and Frank's grandmother did not like to have him go there often.
One day Jack called to him from the orchard, and Frank, who had just finished his work, ran over to meet him.
"Look here," said Jack, "see what I've got," and he held out his cap, which was nearly half full of bird's eggs. Frank looked at them with surprise.
"You certainly couldn't have been so wicked as to rob the birds' nests of all those," said Frank.
"Couldn't I?" said Jack, and he gave a long, low whistle; "may be you never did nothing of the kind."
"I never took eggs away from a bird in my life," said Frank; but he held his head down, for he thought of the little bird he had taken only a few weeks before. So he told Jack about it, and how sorry he had felt ever since; but Jack laughed at him, and said:
"Ah, you are nothing but a chicken-hearted fellow, any way; if you wasn't always tied to your sister, you might come with us fellows, and have some fun. Me, and Joe Miller, and Sam White, is going down the meadows, to hunt for more this afternoon, and if you'll come, we'll give you some."