4O More Tales of the Birds 



nipped with a single night's frost, and there 

 was no sun to bring new ones to life. But we 

 managed to get on fairly that day, and hoped 

 that the east wind would be gone the next 

 morning." 



" Why, what a difference the east wind does 

 make to some people ! " put in Gwenny. " You're 

 just like Aunt Charlotte ; whenever she's sharper 

 than usual, my mother says it's the east wind, 

 and so it is, I believe. It dries up the snails, so 

 that they go under the bushes, and she can't find 

 them. That's the only way I can tell an east 

 wind : the snails go in, and Aunt Charlotte gets 

 put out." 



" Then Aunt Charlotte must have been very 

 cross last spring," said the Martin; "and so 

 were we, and very wretched too. It lasted quite 

 three weeks, and how we contrived to get through 

 it I hardly know. Some of us died the weaker 

 ones when it turned to sleeting and freezing ; 

 and when the Swifts came early in May they had 

 a dreadful time of it, poor creatures, for they are 

 very delicate and helpless, in spite of their long 

 wings. There were no flies to be had, except in 



