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LADY JANE THE SWAN 



THE warm south wind has been blowing now and 

 again for weeks, and already the snow was gone ex- 

 cept a few great drifts in the north side of the woods near 

 the creek. Claytonias, anemones, and bloodroot were vie- 

 ing with each other to see which could attract the atten- 

 tion of the earliest bees. Eobins and bluebirds had come 

 trooping north in untold thousands, and every few min- 

 utes the boy playing in the yard would hear the honk, 

 honk, of wild geese and a long V-shaped line would come 

 in sight on the southern sky, soon to fade away in the 

 north, while wild ducks were seldom out of sight more than 

 a few minutes at a time. The country was quite thickly 

 populated, and most of the water fowl, growing wise, had 

 decided to go on to the lakes of Northern Iowa and Min- 

 nesota in search of new nesting grounds. Already the 

 trumpeter swan had begun to be so scarce as to attract 

 attention whenever a flock passed over. 



A few miles north of the forks of Skunk Eiver was a 

 pond which at high water covered several thousands of 

 acres and even in the middle of the summer was more than 

 a mile across. This pond, known locally as Holmes Lake, 

 was never deep even in the middle, and over much of it 

 a man in high top wading boots could safely wade. Sweet 



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