CHAPTER XVIII 



HALCYON DAYS HAVE COME AGAIN DOWN ON THE 

 LAKE SHORE 



Life at the Farm had resumed its busy routine and by the end 

 of January, Fanny and John were installed in the now com- 

 pleted and cosily furnished house. Invitations were issued to a 

 few of their most intimate friends, and in due time the pleasant 

 house-party had arrived and for several days a mildly hilarious 

 time was spent. John escorted the party through the woods to 

 view the lumbering operations, and many were the exclamations 

 of wonder and delight of the city folks as they saw the axemen 

 dexterously fell the pine trees, trim and cut the logs and brush 

 and with strong teams haul the timber, placing it in piles ready 

 for sawing. Here and there on the crisp snow were the foot- 

 prints of foxes, rabbits, squirrels and other wild things, while 

 now and then the whirring partridge was startled by the new- 

 comers. Every morning these birds of the evergreens came, to 

 the joy of the visitors, to the edge of the clearing, where as 

 Fanny's pets they were accustomed to be fed. As the snow had 

 fallen in November, she had noticed the few remaining birds 

 daily coming nearer the barns and house seeking for food, no 

 longer easily obtained in the fields and woods. As the snow 

 grew deeper the partridge too would be found approaching shyly 

 the buildings, and, suspecting the cause, Fanny threw crumbs 

 and as they came again, she got grain and soon was pleased to 

 find them becoming morning visitants. Then, too, came the 

 snow buntings, and at times the cedar wax-wings and grosbeaks, 

 which soon got to know their friend and followed her from the 

 farmhouse to the new cottage. A flock of crows had challenged 

 their intrusion into the cottage in the pines and had looked sus- 

 piciously upon its now permanent occupants; but they, always 

 wise, soon might be heard at the breaking dawn warning off by 

 their caw! caw! the smaller birds, and only gave place to the 

 latter when Fanny went to the verandah to feed them. The 

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