CHAPTER III 



CELEBRATING GROUND-HOG DAY 



A BEAR'S track in the first autumn snow! 

 This was a sure sign, Old Jim said, of a 

 mild winter. Yet Old Jim had just 

 been telling me that all the signs said the coming 

 winter was to be a cold, snowy one; the geese 

 had raced south early, squirrels had been gather- 

 ing cones late into the night, beaver fur was the 

 heaviest ever seen, several kinds of birds would 

 soon be wearing feathers enough for a pillow 

 all these were preparations for a long and cold 

 winter. On February second the ground-hog 

 was sure to look forth on snowy distances, see his 

 shadow, and then retreat to the bottom of his 

 den, for winter was scheduled to last still six 

 weeks longer. Off I went to try to discover 

 if other bears were making the mistake of con- 

 tradicting famous weather signs. Either this 

 bear did not know what he was about, or else the 

 hard winter signs were not correct. 



Bears hibernate every winter. But if they are 

 still about and making tracks in the first snow 

 this is a certain sign that winter will be slow in 



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