Page:The Children of the New Forest - 1847 - Marryat.djvu/75

 tub when they were finished. Humphrey had been out the day before with the unknown article he had been so long about. The next morning he went out early before breakfast, and when he returned, he brought a hare in his hand, which he laid on the table.

"There," said he, "my springe has answered, and this is the first fruit of it. Now I'll make some more, and we will have something by way of a change for dinner."

They were very much pleased with Humphrey's success, and he was not a little proud of it.

"How did you find out how to make it?"

"Why, I read in the old book of travels which Jacob brought home with him last summer, of people catching rabbits and hares in some way like this; I could not make it out exactly, but it gave me the idea."

We ought to have told the reader that Jacob had more than once brought home an old book or two which he had picked up, or had given him, and that these had been occasionally looked into by Humphrey and Edward, but only now and then, as they had too much to do to find much time for reading, although sometimes in the evening, they did take them up. When it is considered, how young they were, and what a practical and busy life they led, this cannot be surprising.

 CHAPTER VII.

was now after something else. He had made several traps, and brought in rabbits and hares almost every day. He had also made some bird traps, and had caught two goldfinches for Alice and Edith, which they put in the cages he had made for them. But as we said, Humphrey was about something else; he was out early in the morning, and in the evening, when the moon was up, he came home late, long after they had all gone  Children of the New Forest.