Gerald's face fell. Ten minutes later he watched his sister and uncle drive off in the pony-carriage-with a decidedly envious heart, and stood at the front gate gazing disconsolately down the hill until he saw Gilbert Mickle appear in sight. If the lame boy had not observed him, he would have retreated; but Gilbert, apparently guessing his intention, frustrated it by shouting to him to wait. Now Gerald had a reason of his own for not desiring to encounter Gilbert, and his countenance expressed decided uneasiness as he opened the gate for the other to enter. "Look here," said Gilbert, fixing a stern, accusing gaze on the younger boy's face, "how dared you interfere with that robin's nest?" "I didn't!" Gerald cried quickly. "I never touched it!" Gilbert's eyes flashed ominously, and he restrained his rising anger with an effort as he replied— "Then you must have meddled with the young ones. I know you must have, though no one saw you. What a young idiot Tom must have been to show you the nest! How dared you touch the birds—you—you meddlesome imp?" "I didn't do any harm," Gerald said sulkily; "and you've no right to speak to me like that, and call me names. I won't stand it. I suppose you think you can bully me as you like, just because you're older than I am? Besides, I didn't hurt the young birds; I only took them out of the nest to look at them, and I put them back again as gently as possible." "You killed them!" Gilbert declared indignantly. "I didn't!" Gerald retorted hotly. "How can you tell such a big lie? I'm not going to stand here and let you talk to me like this. I never hurt the young birds, I tell you, and you're very wicked to say I did. Tom never told you so, I'm sure." "No, Tom did not see you touch them; but he remembers you went back to look at them again when he was at the other side of the garden. Perhaps you didn't mean to hurt them," Gilbert proceeded, "but you killed them nevertheless. Surely you must know that if birds are taken from their nest they never settle in properly again? This morning, when Dora went to look at the young robins, she found them all dead on the ground, having fallen out of the nest. So you see, indirectly, you did kill them." Gerald looked really shocked, for he had had no intention of doing harm when his curiosity had prompted him to take the half-fledged birds out of their nursery; he had promised Tom not to touch them, but he had thought it would never be known he had broken his word. He now recalled the anxiety the Mickle children had all evinced that the robins might save their brood, and he was conscious that they would view his conduct very unfavourably. "I am so sorry," he said in a low voice. "I never meant to hurt them— truly, I did not. I would not have taken them out of the nest if I had known what would happen." "Tom said you solemnly promised not to touch them." Gerald made no response, but his crimson face plainly expressed that Tom had spoken the truth.