10 A WHITE-PAPER GARDEN 



junipers. The blessed conifers! Through 

 how many ages they have striven to adapt 

 themselves to their environment ! How ten- 

 derly they hold their soft burden of snow ! 

 How cheerfully they shelter the birds from 

 the storms ! If you chance to see the delicate 

 embroideries the feet of a covey of partridges 

 print upon the white drifts, follow it, and it 

 will be almost sure to lead you to a thicket 

 of hemlocks. There you will find also, un- 

 certain, shy, nut-hatches and juncoes com- 

 pact, cold-defying little scraps of life, whose 

 tiny " cheep " or crisp interrogatory call to 

 their fellows is all the conversation the busy 

 things have time to toss to and fro in the 

 frosty air, so earnest is the warfare they wage 

 against the eggs and larvae hidden under the 

 bark. What an evil it would be if they would 

 decide to become migratory birds, or take it 

 into their heads to wish to know what a palm- 

 tree looks like! The jays, those gay, blue- 

 mailed freebooters, haunt the evergreens, and 

 bid defiance to the cold in harsh cries that are 

 of a courage so high as to put a bit of their 

 bravery into the faintest heart. Once in a 

 way a flock of ruby-crested knights may search 



