FIRST SNOW 



situation. They huddled at the door of the hen- 

 house, and whenever they tried to travel they did it 

 a-wing. As they were not used to this method of 

 locomotion they misjudged distances and fell pro- 

 testinj^ into the snow, where they stayed for a while 

 before trying to walk. The young ducks that sleep 

 under the granary did not venture on the snow until 

 Sheppy routed them out on one of his investigating 

 excursions. Even though nature has provided them 

 with snowshoes in their web feet they preferred to 

 try their wings, but they are so fat and heavy that 

 their flying was a flat failure. They quacked across 

 the barnyard with heads up and wings beating 

 wildly, but their cute little tails and flat feet were 

 still in the snow. The young turkeys also took to 

 flying, and though they were more expert than any 

 of the others the result was the same. They landed 

 in snowdrifts and looked unhappy. One young gob- 

 bler landed on top of a haystack, where he stood up 

 to his wishbone in the snow, waiting for a thaw to 

 come and rescue him. I left him until the chores 

 were done and then rescued him by pelting him with 

 snowballs. Of course, this trouble about the snow 

 lasted for only a day or so. Ducks, hens and tur- 

 keys now get around much as usual. 



243 



