yard with Perry the dog. Elmer, a lad scarcely a year younger than Edwin,
was tossing a stick for the dog to return to him, and Edwin was astonished
to find that his friend Perry was so very wise. The baby, who was in
Edwin's charge, was barely able to keep upon his feet, but Edwin was doing
his best to protect him from falling and to keep his eyes upon both the
child and the dog at once.

Suddenly above his head in a large apple-tree Edwin heard a rustling of the
leaves and a chattering of little birds, and he realized that his feathered
friends had returned with a breakfast for the little ones. As he gazed
upward endeavoring to locate the nest, he was just pointing to the spot
when whiz went the stick with which Elmer had been amusing the group. So
dangerously near to the nest did the missile go that Edwin, crying out with
terror and anxiety, for the moment forgot all about his baby cousin.
Running toward the tree as though hoping to protect the nest, he was just
in time to see the stick miss the mark and then fall upon the ground
alarmingly near the baby's foot. Although unhurt, the baby screamed, and a
moment later Mrs. Fischer came rushing from the house and demanded a reason
for the little one's crying.

Elmer, ever willing to justify himself at any cost, said hurriedly: "It was
all Ed's fault! I just tried to throw that little stick up there in the
tree, and when it came down it struck the baby's foot. If Ed had been
minding his work, the baby wouldn't have been there." But Elmer failed to
tell that he was throwing at the little nest with the intention of knocking
it out of the tree and that the stick had done no harm to the baby's foot.

Accepting the explanation without any further details, Mrs. Fischer became
furious, and, picking up the stick, she struck Edwin time and again upon
the head and shoulders. Then, after calling him many hard and cruel names,