FOUR NOTABLES 199 
“What did your father think was the reason?” asked 
Gray Lady, for she remembered as a young girl that the 
General used to say, ‘‘Get a farmer interested in a subject 
enough to make him really think, and you cannot get 
better advice.” 
“Pop said all these new stiff-edged stone roads that are 
pushing out the dirt and grass lanes may be mighty fine 
for automobiles and all the other dust-raisers, but they’re 
poor trash for horses’ feet and game-birds, ’cause the 
brush along the old roads both sides of the fences made 
good cover and kept the snow, when it drifted, sort of 
loose, so that the birds could get in and out to look for 
food. But when everything is trimmed smooth, the snow 
lies flat and hard and crusty, and the birds can’t get under 
to grub for food, and if they’re under and it freezes on top 
of ’em, they can’t get out. 
“Grand’ther said that was so, but he reckoned there 
wasn’t so much for the game-birds to eat, anyhow, because 
folks that used to raise just so many acres of rye and 
wheat and oats and buckwheat had mostly given it up 
and put their land down to meadows for hay, because that 
is the only crop that there is a sure market for every- 
where. Then Grand’ther said that, between freezing and 
starving, and what was left being shot down close, it’s a 
wonder there’s any Grouse left, or Bob-whites either.” 
“There, Goldilocks, you have your answer as to what 
the Kind Hearts’ Club can do to make these food-birds 
comfortable during the ten months of the year (in this state, 
Connecticut), when they may roam without fear of hunt- 
ing by honest sportsmen. The dishonest hunters and pot- 
hunters, who do not care for law and order, we must 
