The Swan and Her Crew

  CHAPTER II.

  Stuffing the Crossbills.--The proposed Yacht.--An impaled Woodcock.

  Frank led the way up stairs, and unlocking the door they entered theroom, and piling up some brushwood in the grate they lit it, and soonhad a roaring fire. The room now presented a very cheerful appearance. Alarge window at one end looked out over the glittering Broad. The roomitself was plainly furnished with a few deal chairs and a table, and atone side of it was an old-fashioned bureau, in the drawers of which theboys' natural history collections were stored. Around the room wereseveral shelves, on which were some very creditably stuffed birds,flower-pots filled with mould and covered with gauze bent over canearches, the use of which will presently appear, and a good number ofbooks on natural history, chiefly of a cheap and popular kind.

  Frank got out a box containing knife-blades of various sizes fastenedinto handles of wood, two pairs of scissors, pliers, and other toolsuseful or necessary for skinning or stuffing birds; while Jimmy Bretttook down a book on birds, and turned to the account of the crossbill;and as Frank was busy at one end of the table skinning the birds, Jimmyat the other end kept up a running commentary on his book for thebenefit of his friend, in the following manner:--

  "There is a lot about crossbills here, Frank. They are rare, but theyhave been found at different times and in different months of the yearin many parts of the kingdom. They vary greatly in size as well as incolour, according to age, sex, and the time of the year. They areyellow, red, green, or brown at different times, so if it were not fortheir cross bills it would be rather hard to distinguish them. There aretwo pictures of them here; one has a rose-coloured back and red-brownwings, and the other has a green back and brown wings. The beaks curveand cross each other, and appear to be particularly suited for breakingopen the cones of fir-trees and picking out the seeds, and they will cutopen apples and other fruit to get at the pips. They come generally inthe winter, but often stay until the spring, and then they may breedhere, although it is very seldom that their nests are found. They breedin Norway and Sweden, and nest very early in the year, and their nestseems to be like a missel thrush's, and is placed in fir-trees. Theireggs are white with just a touch of blue or green, and spotted withbrown spots."

  CROSSBILL.]

  "There, that is all that seems to be worth noticing, but we have got aprize worth having. I am afraid they will not stop and breed. There arenot enough pine woods about, and they appear to be fond of going fromplace to place, so that it is not likely they will be here in thespring."

  While he talked, Frank quickly and skilfully skinned and cleaned thebirds, and then he painted the inside of the skins with a solution ofcorrosive sublimate dissolved in spirits of wine, which is a mostexcellent preservative and much more cleanly to handle than arsenicalsoap. Then he loosely stuffed them with cotton-wool, smoothed thefeathers, and placed them on a shelf to dry.

  "Now, Frank," said Jimmy plaintively, "what _are_ you going to do withthat young larch-tree? I have been very patient all this time, so youmay as well tell me now."

  "Well, Jimmy, I have thought of a grand idea. You are the inventivegenius of us two, and I usually carry things out; but I have inventedsomething now which we must both help to carry out. What do you think ofhaving a yacht, Jimmy--a large yacht, so that we could sail all over theBroad, and down the rivers, and all over the country, and fish andbirdnest, and naturalize, and shoot wildfowl to our hearts' content?What do you think of that, my boy?"

  "It would be an awfully jolly thing, no doubt; but as far as HicklingBroad goes, it is too shallow for any yacht. Why, except in the Channel,it is not more than four feet deep in any part, large as it is; andparts of it are only two feet deep, so that if we had a yacht we shouldstick fast directly. Besides, how are we to get a yacht?"

  "Make one."

  "How? It will be impossible."

  "We could not make a yacht of the usual shape, and if we could, it wouldnot suit our purposes. What I propose is that we should build a doubleyacht. Just listen while I explain, and don't interrupt. We will maketwo long pontoons, pointed at both ends, and connect the two bycross-pieces, on which we can lay a deck and build a small, low cabin.Such a boat would not draw more than a foot of water, and to make hersail to windward we should have a drop keel or centre board, which wecould let down or draw up according to the depth of the water. Then Ithink a lug sail and mizen would suit her best. We will build herourselves. And inch deal is cheap enough, so it cannot cost so much. Ihave saved my pocket-money to buy a lot of books, but I can do withoutthem for a time"----

  "I have a couple of sovereigns," eagerly interrupted Jimmy.

  "That is right; then we can do it swimmingly. We will build her in oldBell's yard, and he will lend us what tools we have not got."

  Jimmy warmly welcomed the idea, and, getting out some paper and pencils,they began to draw plans and estimates of cost with great enthusiasm.

  "And now," said Frank, "we will go and see Bell and ask him what hethinks of it."

  Bell was a very eccentric old man, who lived on the shores of a smalland winding creek, which ran up from the Broad. By trade he was atailor, but he united to this the very different occupation of aboat-builder, and filled up his spare time with fishing and shootingwildfowl. He was a close observer of the habits of beasts, birds, andfishes, and was a great favourite with the boys, whose visits he likedand encouraged.

  Stepping into the boat that lay moored in the boat-house, the two boysrowed across a bend of the Broad and up the creek to his cottage. Theold man was at work in his yard, repairing the bottom of a boat, whilehis old wife might be seen at the window of the house putting thefinishing-touches to the Sunday coat of some village beau.

  "Good morning, Bell; it is a fine day."

  "Good morning, young master. Yes, it is a fine day, but it will be finerto-morrow. Yon robin sings higher in the poplar this afternoon than hedid this morning, and that is a sure sign that finer weather is coming."

  "I never knew that before," said Frank.

  "No, you have not lived so long in the world as I have," replied Bell;"but I am glad you have come, for I have a very strange sight to showyou. Look here."

  He went into the cottage, and returned, bringing with him a dry andwithered branch, one end of which had been torn and slit, probably bythe wind, so that it was a sharp and jagged spike. On the end of thiswas impaled a fine woodcock, dead of course, and with the sharp piece ofwood imbedded in its breast.

  "Poor thing, how did it get into that fix?" Jimmy exclaimed.

  "Well, sir, you see it was in this way. The birds, as you know, are nowcoming from abroad--I can hear great flocks of them at night sometimesas they fly overhead calling to one another--and last night you know waspitch dark, so that this woodcock, coming over at a great speed, flewagainst this sharp branch in the dark and spiked itself. When I got upthis morning I saw it in that oak-tree, and I sent my boy up to cut offthe branch, and knowing you would like to have it, I kept it, just as itwas."

  "We are very much obliged to you, Bell, and we will mount it and stuffit, just as it is. It will be an interesting thing to add to our museum,won't it, Jimmy?"

  "I have often heard of birds flying against the telegraph wires andbeing killed in the dark, and of their dashing against windows, eitherattracted by the light, or not seeing the glass, but I have not heard ofanything so curious as this. One cannot help feeling sorry for the poorbird. After a long and tiring journey, and expecting to find all itstroubles over, to meet with a sad end like this!"

  WOODCOCK.]

  The boys then unfolded their plan to Bell. Anything out of the commonwas sure to interest him, and hence, though he was not so sanguine ofsuccess as the boys were, yet he thought it might be done, and offeredto help them as much as he could, and to let them use his yard.

  "There is nothing like making a beginning," said Frank, who was quickand impetuous in action, and he took off his coat and set to workvigorously to clear a space close by the water's edge,
where the keel ofa yacht might be laid, while Jimmy went through their calculations ofcost with Bell.