SIGNS OF HARD WEATHER 121 



a runnel fed by a warm spring, but the heath 

 was rendered uninhabitable for the hare by 

 the piercing wind, against which the withered 

 grasses of the mound afforded no protection. 

 He endured the discomfort for some days, then 

 as it became unbearable he forsook the spot 

 and returned, not without misgivings, to the 

 hill. But Grey Fox was still present to his 

 mind ; he approached with the utmost caution, 

 carefully shunned the old form, and sat at a 

 spot midway between it and the chantry. 



In this higher station, however, he found 

 effectual shelter from the wind, though its whist- 

 ling sounded menacingly close, especially when 

 it rose, as towards night it often did, to a 

 shriek. 



In its shrillest notes the north-easter was 

 almost articulate ; it seemed to sound a warning 

 of the bitter weather to come. For the cold 

 was no mere snap like the previous visitation ; 

 it was, as the old tenant of Brea Farm foresaw 

 in the red sunsets and dead set of the wind, 

 the beginning of a season of unusual severity. 

 The flocks of redwings and fieldfares which 

 had sought the westernmost angle of the land 

 found the exposed fields as hard frozen and 

 inhospitable as those they had fled from. In 

 the sheltered valleys alone, when the abundant 



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