At this moment a shrill cry from their parent startled them, and again they quickly scattered, for the dreadful gardener had already arrived, and was there awaiting them, standing by the tree with his outstretched arms. It certainly was very provoking and terrifying, and after one or two more feeble attempts upon the apples the Blackbird determined to give up the orchard altogether, for go at what time he might, that horrible, that ugly old gardener was always there before him. One day he happened to mention his trouble and disappointment to the Rook. You should have seen that bird's face; his usually solemn expression of countenance suddenly gave way to one of intense amusement, as he replied, "Ah, you hav'n't been quite so many years about the orchards as I have, or you wouldn't have been quite so frightened. The gardener has tried that old trick upon me and mine so often that I'm quite accustomed to it. Why, it's not a gardener at all--it's a rickety old Scare-crow! However," he added, as he saw the Blackbird look rather ashamed and crestfallen, "I was quite taken in myself at first; but one day I happened to be passing the orchard just as a gale of wind was blowing, and saw the Scare-crow topple over. Since that day I've never been afraid of scare-crows, although there's an old farmer near here who puts most frightful-looking ones in his corn fields, worse than any I've ever seen anywhere else. It's of no use, however, we don't care a bit for them. They must find out something much more terrible than scare-crows if they want to frighten the crows or us." It must be confessed that the Blackbird never had the moral courage to acknowledge how completely he had been taken in, and it was only gradually that his young ones found out that after all the scare-crow was not the dreaded gardener, but only some very shabby old clothes arranged on a stupid pole or two. It was about this time that the Blackbird haunted the neighbourhood of a certain lane, where the bramble blossoms had been succeeded by the wild-fruits of autumn. The blackberries were abundant, and it was not the Blackbird only who found this lane, with its high hedgerows, an attractive spot. Little Willie would sometimes persuade his unwilling nurse to take that lane on their way home, "just for a treat, you know;" and while the nurserymaid, followed by Mrs. Barlow, pushed Alice in her perambulator, Willie would linger far behind, making many overt attacks upon the blackberries, thereby tearing his clothes and staining his lips and fingers.