436 THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



December or January ! When a merciful winter has 

 stopped the heart with cold, you no longer feel the 

 frost nor respond to it as a living organism ; you use 

 up the store of food at a microscopic rate, and in 

 spring you perform the miracle of becoming a live 

 thing once more. It is the half-winters that make 

 the severest demand on living things, and no doubt 

 produce the hardiest stock for any eventuality the 

 world can offer. That is why the Englishman, the 

 English rabbit, the English chick-weed, have colonised 

 the whole world. 



