SNUGGING-DOWN DAYS 



lost their sombre green to put on the 

 color of deep seal brown. It is as if 

 they had donned their sealskin cloaks for 

 winter wear. 



But all these clumps are doubly pro- 

 tected in another way, not for their own 

 sake, for they are but dead stems, but for 

 the birds, who will need their seeds when 

 the snows later in the month shall have 

 covered the ground far out of their 

 reach. All the autumn the winds have 

 been whirling dry leaves back and forth, 

 and each clump has trapped them cun- 

 ningly till the slender stems that might 

 otherwise be buried and broken by the 

 snow are reenforced on all sides by elas- 

 tic leaves that will hold them bravely 

 up. Here is an open larder, a free-lunch 

 counter for the goldfinches and chicka- 

 dees of next January. Here they may 

 glean and glean again, for except they 

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