40 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



might be if the ground-hog sign was correct 

 and everybody had said it was. I started off 

 as soon as I could see. There were fourteen 

 ground-hog dens to be visited. I wanted to 

 know if ground-hogs came out on this day and 

 if they did I wanted to see at least one. 



The first animal I saw was a rabbit. He sat 

 up straight, in fact he almost stood up. When 

 rabbits sit up straight it is a sure sign, so I had 

 heard, of cold weather. Surely the sky would 

 clear so that the ground-hogs could see their 

 shadows ! 



I nearly wore out a pair of boots rushing from 

 ground-hog den to den. Dark, low-drifting 

 clouds filled all the mountain valley. It did 

 not look hopeful for sunshine and ground-hog 

 shadows. But shadow or no shadow I wanted to 

 see a ground-hog show his head from the entrance 

 to his den. The highest den visited was one far 

 up the mountain side which I hoped might be 

 above the clouds and in the sunshine. Its 

 snow-filled entrance holes showed that the 

 weather-maker had not even looked out. Feb- 

 ruary second had been cloudy from morning to 

 night. I had not seen a ground-hog. What 

 would the remainder of the winter be? That 

 night I went to sleep while repeating: 



If Candlemas be bright and clear 

 We'll have two winters in the year. 



