Redruff 



snow is a warm wrap, and the air passes through 

 it easily enough for breathing. Next morning 

 each partridge found a solid wall of ice before 

 him from his frozen breath, but easily turned to 

 one side and rose on the wing at Redruffs 

 morning ' Kreet, krcet, kwit? (Come children, 

 come children, fly.) 



This was the first night for them in a snow- 

 drift, though it was an old story to Redruff, and 

 next night they merrily dived again into bed, and 

 the north wind tucked them in as before. But 

 a change of weather was brewing. The night 

 wind veered to the east. A fall of heavy flakes 

 gave place to sleet, and that to silver rain. The 

 whole wide world was sheathed in ice, and 

 when the grouse awoke to quit their beds, they 

 found themselves sealed in with a great cruel 

 sheet of edgeless ice. 



The deeper snow was still quite soft, and Red- 

 ruff bored his way to the top, but there the 

 hard, white sheet defied his strength. Hammer 

 and struggle as he might he could make no im- 

 pression, and only bruised his wings and head. 

 His life had been made up of keen joys and 

 dull hardships, with frequent sudden desperate 



347 



