"Family!" replied
he, "there be no family in the case, your honour; but here have been
sad mischief done in the rookery!"
I had noticed, the day before, that the high and gusty winds which
prevailed had occasioned great disquiet among these airy householders;
their nests being all filled with young, who were in danger of being
tilted out of their tree-rocked cradles. Indeed, the old birds
themselves seemed to have hard work to maintain a foothold; some kept
hovering and cawing in the air; or, if they ventured to alight, they
had to hold fast, flap their wings, and spread their tails, and thus
remain see-sawing on the topmost twigs.
In the course of the night, however, an awful calamity had taken place
in this most sage and politic community. There was a great tree, the
tallest in the grove, which seemed to have been a kind of court-end of
the metropolis, and crowded with the residence of those whom Master
Simon considers the nobility and gentry. A decayed limb of this tree
had given way with the violence of this storm, and had come down with
all its aircastles.
One should be well aware of the humours of the good Squire and his
household, to understand the general concern expressed at this
disaster.
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