One summer morning, Mark Ridley and his little sister Minnie were crossing a field that lay between their house and an old apple orchard, and just as they came near a clump of young trees, their attention was attracted by a bird, which seemed to be behaving very strangely.

When they first noticed her, she was fluttering about among the low branches of the bushes, and uttering the most piercing cries. For a moment, Mark thought she was wounded. But the instant she saw the children, she flew straight towards them, uttering the same piercing cries, as of anger. Round and round their heads she flew, and then off to an old apple-tree near by. Three times she came near them, with the same sharp cries, and then flew back again to the tree, till at last they thought some one had robbed her nest, and that she took them for the rogues.