Page:Tom Brown's School Days (6th ed).djvu/280

 of instruments of annoyance for the behoof of Martin and his live colony. One morning, an old basket made its appearance, suspended by a short cord outside Martin's window, in which were deposited an amateur nest containing four young, hungry jackdaws, the pride and glory of Martin's life for the time being, and which he was currently asserted to have hatched upon his own person. Early in the morning, and late at night, he was to be seen half out of the window, administering to the varied wants of his callow brood. After deep cogitation, East and his chum had spliced a knife onto the end of a fishing-rod; and, having watched Martin out, had, after half an hour's severe sawing, cut the string by which the basket was suspended, and tumbled it onto the pavement below, with hideous remonstrance from the occupants. Poor Martin, returning from his short absence, collected the fragments and replaced his brood (except one whose neck had been broken in the descent) in their old location, suspending them this time by string and wire twisted together, defiant of any sharp instrument which his persecutors could command. But, like the Russian engineers at Sebastopol, East and his chum had an answer for every move of the adversary; and the next day had mounted a gun in the shape of a pea-shooter upon the ledge of their window, trained so as to bear exactly upon the spot which Martin had to occupy while tending his nurselings. The moment he began to feed, they began to shoot; in vain did the enemy himself invest in a pea-shooter, and endeavor to answer the fire while he fed the young birds with his other hand; his attention was divided, and his shots flew wild, while every one of theirs told on his face and hands, and drove him into howlings and imprecations. He had been driven to ensconce the nest in a corner of his already too well-filled den.

His door was barricaded by a set of ingenious bolts of his own invention, for the sieges were frequent by the neighbors when any unusually ambrosial odor spread itself from the den to the neighboring studies. The door panels were in a normal state of smash,