AIT 
SOME SUSPICIOUS CHARACTERS 
Owls and Hawks 
Frost had come. Real frost, with black, nipping fingers. 
White frost, at its first appearance, is a decorator who casts 
a silver spell upon the meadows, turning them into shim- 
mering lakes and touching the ripe leaves until each one 
becomes a banner of scarlet, gold, or russet. 
Chrysanthemums and tufts of self-sown pansies, hud- 
dling in warm nooks, were the only flowers left about the 
farm-houses or in Gray Lady’s garden, and both of these 
would hold their own until Thanksgiving Day gave praise 
for the year’s growth and bade growing things sleep the 
long sleep of winter. 
Birdland showed the change less than either the hickory 
or the river woods, for the old orchard held its leaves as 
apple trees usually do, and the belt of spruces and pines, 
that ran from the north side of it quite up to the house, 
made a cheerful green barrier and wind-break as well; but 
the Swallows and Night Hawks were no longer skimming 
the air, and high above, a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks 
were sailing majestically, occasionally giving their cry 
Kee-o— Kee-o! 
Jacob had finished the Martin house the week previous, 
and a stout smooth pole like a flagstaff had been planted, 
not in Birdland itself but on a slight rise in the ground 
154 
