4 IN WINTER. 



one mouse came from an opening in the roof, 

 where many runways met. It picked its pain- 

 ful way over the frost, as though every crystal 

 was a pricking needle. I moved and away it 

 darted, but not to tell its fellows. Another and 

 another came, and, like the one first seen, 

 they simply ran from post to pillar and back from 

 pillar to post. Perhaps a weasel was on their 

 track but, if we commence surmising, there 

 will never be an end to it. Let me declare dog- 

 matically, these mice were taking a sun bath, and 

 with this thought, leave them. 



As I looked about me, the crows again became 

 the most prominent feature of the landscape. 

 They hovered in a loose flock over all the mead- 

 ows ; literally, in thousands, and as the rays of the 

 sun struck them, they too glistened as though the 

 frost crystals had incased their feathers. Higher 

 and higher they rose into the misty air and soon 

 dispersed in every direction ; but they will gather 

 again as the day closes, for over the river, some- 

 where in the woods, they have a roosting-place. 

 I have seen this knoll, now thickly tenanted by 

 mice, black with crows, day after day, within a 

 fortnight. What then became of the mice ? 

 Surely their cunning stood them well in need to 

 escape these ravenous birds, and yet they have 

 done so. Stupid as they seem when studied in- 

 dividually, these mice must have a modicum of 



