It is not every landlord that goes to so much trouble for a tenant.
CHAPTER X
OFF WITH THE OLD LOVE, ON WITH THE NEW
“All right, we’re coming down; kill the fatted calf,” Hervey called with all his former gay manner. “No more up and down trails for me. This is moving day.”
When he had descended a little nearer, Tom heard the cheery voice more clearly. “It’s no easy job moving a house and family. I have to watch my step. Oh, boy, coming down! This tree is tied in a sailor’s knot.”
“Are you bringing the bird?” Tom called.
“I’m bringing the bird and the whole block he lived in,” Hervey called back merrily. “I’m transplanting the neighborhood. He’s going to move into a better locality—very fashionable. He’s coming up in the world—I mean down. O-o-h, boy, watch your step; there was a narrow escape! I stepped on a chunk of air.”
So he came down working his way with both feet and one hand, and holding the precious piece of branch with its dangling nest in the other.
“Talk about your barbed wire entanglements,” he called. Then, after a minute, “This little codger lives in a swing,” he shouted; “I should think she’d get dizzy. No accounting for tastes, hey? Whoa—boy! There’s where I nearly took a double-header. If I should fall now, I wouldn’t have so far to go.”
“You won’t fall,” said Tom with a note of admiring confidence in his brief remark.