“Stuff!” she said; “it was only a bird flying.”
“But a bird hasn’t got a pointed cap, and a long beard, and a coat with long tails!”
“If I said it was a bird you may depend I was right,” said the nurse, pushing him back into bed rather roughly. But she tucked him up well and gave him a kiss, for she was a very kind person, really.
As Jack Frost sat in the holly tree, a robin who happened to be awake came to get a few holly berries, for they were beginning to turn red.
“What are you doing on the holly tree?” he asked as he saw him.
“What’s that to you?” said Jack Frost, who had no manners.
“I am sure he is up to some harm,” said the robin. “I will just wait about and see.”
Jack Frost sat mumbling and laughing to himself; what he really wanted to do was to go into the garden and spoil the flowers.
Presently a squirrel who was out of bed late ran up the trunk of the larch-tree close by; he flourished his tail and stopped to look at Jack Frost.
“Good evening,” he said very civilly, for though he did not like Jack Frost he knew how to behave.