“Of course!” exclaimed Merry. “He has been robbing a nest. I wouldn’t see the poor little creatures for the world. They must be nearly suffocated. It’s cruel, horrible, inhuman, to tear them from their mother just for the sake of torturing them to death!” “How sharp some people’s ears are!” laughed Hubert, provokingly. “When little birds do take to singing for their supper they make a good deal of noise; but perhaps I’m a trifle deaf. Do you hear them, ’Va?” “Oh, you are a teaze!” exclaimed Eva, jumping down. “I don’t believe it’s anything alive at all. But it’s high time we pursued our ‘winding way.’ Which direction are you going to take, Hu?” “I propose doing myself the honour to constitute myself your protector,” returned Hubert, with mock ceremony, “in case you should have rough work with any ‘animated posts’ by the way.” Mabel and Merry inwardly objected to this arrangement, fearful of Hubert’s sarcastic mood. They could see that he despised their littleness, and they were both dreadfully uncomfortable. But it was too late to go round by the road after delaying so long, so there was no help, and the four went up the field together, Hubert teasing rather unmercifully all the way, until their path divided, when he drew from his pocket and exhibited two insignificant-looking eggs, which he had secured for his collection. “What’s the matter with Cissy Weller?” he asked, as he walked on with Eva, after calling a parting injunction to the other girls to fight shy of “animated posts.” “Oh. Cissy is always getting into hot water with the girls,” explained Eva; “through sheer blundering, you know, for she’s a good creature at heart; only she has always had a governess at home, and doesn’t understand the ways of school life, some of which are decidedly _un_christian, to my thinking,” added Eva, confidentially. “Then the girls get regularly mad, and do all they can to lash her into a fury. But it is of no use, as they said just now; Cissy never answers back, and it generally ends in her getting sent to Coventry. Poor Cissy! that hurts her more than anything, I believe; she looks so miserable over it. And the strange part of the whole thing is, that if she were to ‘show spirit,’ one or two battles would settle the matter, and they would learn to ‘respect’ her. Hubert, if hot words can do so much, why is silence ‘golden?’” “Because, in scriptural phrase, angry words ‘stir up strife,’” replied Hubert. “Why weren’t we all ‘born dumb,’ then?” quoted Eva. “Oh, Hubert, I do wish I could answer them when they say things like that! You could silence them in a minute; but my thoughts travel so slowly. I know it is more Christian not to retort; but I ought to be able to give a reason for what I believe, when other people say such odd things. After all, what use is there in having tongues, if we mayn’t use them in self-defence?”