CHAPTER VIII 

 NEIGHBOURS OF THE WINTER NIGHT 



A BELATED snow had fallen, the glass went 

 down ten degrees and sleigh-bells again jingled. It 

 was the last Parthian shot of the retreating Winter. 

 Three days before I had been working in the garden 

 spading out my cold-frames, while the song-sparrows 

 and robins were heralding the Spring. This un- 

 expected return of Winter drove the poor sparrows in 

 close for refuge. Two of them found shelter in the 

 woodshed. Going out on the porch the morning after 

 the storm, I saw innumerable bird tracks in the sifted 

 snow-powder on the floor hop, hop, hop, everywhere. 

 A pound of suet had been completely devoured in 

 twenty-four hours. I went down in the garden to look 

 for the rabbit which has visited there all winter. He 

 had been across the snow for his breakfast before I was 

 up, jumping steadily and straight for the lettuce bed, 

 his small fore feet coming down first and his long hind 

 feet swinging on either side and coming down a couple 

 of inches ahead. The frost caught a good deal of 

 young lettuce in the Fall, and the snow has kept it in 

 cold storage for him. He doesn't live in our garden, 



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