Queer Feet and a Queerer Bill 



away how very useful those snowshoes were. 

 "My!" he exclaimed. "I wish Old Mother 

 Nature would give me snowshoes too." Strutter 

 and Jumper both laughed and after a second Peter 

 laughed with them, for he realized how impossible 

 it would be for him to have anything like those 

 snowshoes of Strutter's. 



"Cousin Peter was just saying that he should 

 think I would find it lonesome over here in the 

 Green Forest. He forgot that you and Mrs. 

 Grouse stay all winter, and he forgot that while 

 most of the birds who spent the summer here have 

 left, there are others who come down from the Far 

 North to take their place. " 



"Who, for instance?" demanded Peter. 



"Snipper the Crossbill," replied Jumper 

 promptly. "I haven't seen him yet this winter, 

 but I know he is here because only this morning I 

 found some pine seeds on the snow under a certain 

 tree." 



" Huh ! " Peter exclaimed. "That doesn't prove 

 anything. Those seeds might have just fallen, or 

 Chatterer the Red Squirrel might have dropped 

 them." 



"This isn't the season for seeds to just fall, and 

 I know by the signs that Chatterer hasn't been 

 about," retorted Jumper. "Let's go over there 

 now and see what we will see. " 

 [3231 



