WHEN THE DAYS BEGIN TO LENGTHEN 



No paths were broken at this early hour, and a 

 visit to the grove would have entailed both risk 

 and discomfort; but I knew that I had only to 

 wait a short time for hosts of grove representa- 

 tives to come to me. " The little friends must 

 not find me unprepared, however," I said to my- 

 self. " A welcome as warm as circumstances will 

 allow shall await the very earliest of the guests." 

 So I began scattering my supplies over the veran- 

 da roof: bird peppers, bread crumbs, grain, waste 

 canary-seed, cracked hickory nuts and powdered 

 or crushed dog-biscuit; but in less than a minute 

 the rapidly falling flakes had sealed each tiny 

 tunnel made in the soft snow by the provisions, 

 and my entire feast was obliterated. 



The veranda roof is only a Dependance, how- 

 ever; so in my failure at this point, I turned to 

 the winter tavern proper, At the Sign of the 

 Balsam Bough. I must acknowledge that the 

 name is more alliterative than exact, seeing that 

 not even a sprig of balsam figures in the construc- 

 tion of the hostelry; but its habitues are not 

 hard, cold, matter-of-fact sticklers for exact terms 

 and expressions. I may call their tavern what I 

 will, provided I keep it well provisioned. 



The corner-stone of this establishment was laid 



[99] 



