A COLD SNAP 85 



ing the form habitable again. It was a keen, 

 biting wind, but the hare felt no inconvenience. 

 One sign of the cold snap was the red shawl 

 in which the farmer's wife rode to market ; 

 another, quite as unmistakable, was the advent 

 of the woodcock, whom the hare found sitting 

 near the seat two days later. The stranger 

 was unlike any bird he had seen ; it had rich 

 brown plumage beautifully pencilled, a very 

 long bill, and soft black eyes which looked fear- 

 lessly into his. The hare, unobservant though 

 he usually was of such matters, could not 

 help seeing that it was very jaded and weary ; 

 and weary it might well be, for it had but 

 just accomplished its long flight from Heligo- 

 land. 



Two days before it had harboured in its 

 native forest by the Baltic, awaiting the fall of 

 night to begin its journey to the unfrozen West. 

 When the moon showed above the ghostly 

 steppe, the bird had risen over the snow-laden 

 pine-tops and, mounting to a great height in 

 company with a score others, set out for the 

 hospitable land beyond the seas. The wind 

 was favourable ; bight, lagoon, and island marked 

 the way, till the glimmer given out by a light- 

 house — a glimmer that grew brighter and 

 brighter — told that their mid-journey resting- 



G 



