REDRUFPS CALENDAR 



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Redruff 



but there lay the boundless stretch of Lake On- 

 tario, so he turned again, and the wanirg of 

 the Mad Moon found him once more in *he 

 Mud Creek Glen, but absolutely alone. 



V 



Food grew scarce as winter wore on. Red- 

 ruff clung to the old ravine and the piney sides 

 of Taylor's Hill, but every month brought its 

 food and its foes. The Mad Moon brought 

 madness, solitude, and grapes ; the Snow Moon 

 came with rosehips; and the Stormy Moon 

 brought browse of birch and silver storms that 

 sheathed the woods in ice, and made it hard to 

 keep one's perch while pulling off the frozen 

 buds. Redruff s beak grew terribly worn with 

 the work, so that even when closed there was still 

 an opening through behind the hook. But nat- 

 ure had prepared him for the slippery footing ; 

 his toes, so slim and trim in September, had 

 sprouted rows of sharp, horny points, and these 

 grew with the growing cold, till the first snow 

 had found him fully equipped with snow-shoes 

 and ice-creepers. The cold weather had driven 



33° 



