THINGS TO SEE THIS WINTER 



43 



Did you ever ask yourself the question ? Go forth,2& 

 jthen, as the dusk begins to fall one of these chill v^ 

 winter days and try to see " what comes o' " tl 

 is, where they sleep these winter nights. You 



f'will find an account of my own watching in a chapter 

 called "Birds' Winter Beds" in Wild Life Near 

 Home." 



Vll 



You will come back from your watching in the dusk 



< with the feeling that a winter night for the birds 



* is unspeakably dreary, perilous, and chill. You will 



x close the door on the darkness outside with a shiver 



<as much from dread as from the cold. 



" List'ning the doors an' winnocks rattle," 



/.you will think of the partridge beneath the snow, the 

 /crow in his swaying pine-top, the kinglet in the close- 

 armed cedar, the wild duck riding out the storm in 

 is freezing water-hole, and you will be glad for 

 our four thick walls and downy blankets, and you 

 iwill wonder how any creature can live through the 

 -long, long night of cold and dark and storm. But 

 there is another view of this same picture ; another 

 icture, rather, of this same stormy, bitter night 

 which you must not miss seeing. Go out to see how 

 the animals sleep, what beds they have, what covers 

 to keep off the cold : the mice in the corn-shocks; 

 the muskrats in their thick mud homes; the red 

 squirrels in their rocking, wind-swung beds, so soft; 



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