“Nonsense!” said the nurse. “How can a man sit on the weathercock? Get back into bed this minute or you will have a cold in the morning and I shall be obliged to give you nasty medicine.” “But come! come!” he cried again. The nurse went to the window and looked out, and, just as she did so, Jack Frost jumped off the weathercock into a holly tree. “There! did you see that?” shouted the little boy, clapping his hands. The nurse saw it very well but she could not account for it, so she pretended it had not happened. “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. For answer Jack Frost took out a fir-cone he had in his pocket and threw it at the squirrel’s head. “He has been badly brought up,” said the squirrel, who had several children and was very particular about their behaviour. Then he went and sat at the foot of the tree to watch Jack Frost, for he knew he was wicked, and he thought it better to keep his eye on him. All this time the horrid little man was looking at the garden wall; he sat very still till he heard “Tu-whoo! Tu-whoo!” close by, and saw a large, soft-winged owl flitting among the branches. “Tu-whoo! Jack Frost!” he cried, as he sat down beside him. “How are you this evening?” For answer Jack Frost kicked up his heels very rudely in the owl’s face. The bird flew silently away, but he did not go far; he knew Jack Frost was up to no good, so he perched hard by and watched him with his round, burning eyes. When all was quiet again, Jack Frost went hopping from tree to tree till he got close to the garden wall, where he could see over into the flower-beds; he did not know that the robin, the squirrel, and the owl were all looking at him from the places in which they had hidden themselves.