THE NORTH WIND DOTH BLOW 69 



<* ^graph-wires were the swallows the first sign 

 c I the getting ready for winter has begun. 



The great migratory movements of the birds arei ^ 

 i)very mysterious; but they were in the beginning, I< 

 jthink, and are still, for the most part, mere shifts to 

 j| ..escape the cold. Yet not so much to escape the cold 

 [ itself do the birds migrate, as to find a land of food. 

 (When the northland freezes, when river and lake are 

 sealed beneath the ice and the soil is made hard 

 ' - flint, then the food supplies for most of the birds 

 *> are utterly cut off, causing them to move southward 

 ahead of the cold, or starve. 



There are, however, a few of the seed-eating birds,, 

 like the quail, and some of the insect-eaters, like the 

 r ^chickadee, who are so well provided for that they 

 ' ^can stay and survive the winter. But the great ma- 

 jority of the birds, because they have no storehouse^. 

 * ^Vnor barn, must take wing and fly away from the leai 



Nand hungry cold. 



c - And I am glad to see them go. The thrilling honk 

 ; of the flying wild geese out of the November sky' 

 '.'^ tells me that the hollow forests and closing bays of 

 J the vast desolate North are empty now, except foi 

 \ 'the few creatures that find food and shelter in the 

 ', snow. 



Here in my own small woods and marshes there/ 

 is much getting ready, much comforting assurance 

 that Nature is quite equal to herself, that winter is 

 fV\l not approaching unawares. There will be great la< 



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