He had gone quite a distance when he saw a number of people collected round the foot of a tree. A ladder was set against one of the lower branches, and a man had climbed up nearly to the top of the tree. Jan, like a true boy, lost no time in joining the crowd, but at first he could not make out what was going on. The boughs were thick. All that he could see was the man’s back high up overhead, and what he was doing he could not guess.
A benevolent-looking old gentleman stood near and Jan heard him exclaim with great excitement:
“There, he’s got him! No, he’s not; but it was a close shave!”
“Got what, sir?” he ventured to ask.
“Why, the rook, to be sure.”
Then, seeing that Jan still looked puzzled, he took the trouble to explain.
“You see that rook up there, my lad, don’t you?” Jan had not seen any rook at all! “Well, it is caught in some way, how, I can’t tell you, but it can’t get away from the tree. It has been there three days, they say, and all that time the other rooks have brought food to it, and kept it from starving. Now some one has gone up to see what is the difficulty, and, if possible, to set the poor thing free.”
“Thank you, sir,” said Jan.
And the old gentleman looked at him kindly, and said to himself:
“A very civil, tidy little lad! I like his face.”