or three times, until their curiosity was excited to watch the motions of the birds more narrowly; for they began to suspect that the male and female were both implicated in this issue and entry. Upon the joists of the shed were placed along with some timber and old implements, two small harrows used for grass seeds, laid one above the other; and they were soon aware that their new companions were employed, with all the diligence of their kind, in making their nest in this singular situation. They had built it, said the workman, between one of the butts of the harrow and the adjoining tooth; and by that time, about seven o'clock, and an hour after he and his lads had commenced their work, the birds had made such progress, that they must have begun by the break of day. Of course, he did not fail to remark the future proceedings of his new friends. Their activity was incessant; and he noticed that they began to carry mortar (he said), which he and his companions well knew was for plastering the inside. Late in the same afternoon, and at six o'clock next morning, when the lads and he entered the shed, the first thing they did was to look at the Mavis's nest, which they were surprised to find occupied by one of the birds, while the other plied its unwearied toil. At last the sitting bird, or hen, as they now called her, left the nest likewise; and he ordered one of the apprentices to climb the baulks, who called out that she had laid an egg; and this she had been compelled to do some time before the nest was finished; only plastering the bottom, which could not have been done so well afterwards. When all was finished, the cock
