THE CHICKADEE 



feast for him he will come and sit at 

 your board, a confiding guest, well as- 

 sured of welcome, and will repay you 

 with an example of cheerful life in the 

 midst of dreariness and desolation. In 

 the still, bright days, his cheery voice 

 rings through the frosty air, and when 

 the thick veil of the snow falls in a wav- 

 ering slant from the low sky its muffled 

 cadence still heartens you. 



What an intense spark of vitality 

 must it be that warms such a mite in 

 such an immensity of cold ; that floats 

 his little life in this deluge of frigid 

 air, and keeps him in song while we 

 are dumb with shivering ! If our huge 

 hulks were endowed with proportionate 

 vitality, how easily we might solve the 

 mysteries of the frozen north ! 



On some February day, when the first 

 promise of spring is drifted to you in the 

 soft south wind, the tenderness of spring 

 is voiced in his love-note, brief but full 

 of melody, and sweet as the evening song 

 of thq wood pewee. When the spring 

 songsters come, he takes leave of you. 

 He has seen you safely through the win- 

 ter, and departs to the woods on affairs 

 286 



