DECEMBER 



A Village Christmas Wild Wales Winter Feeding Habits 



Horse and Hound A. Goose Sanctuary &quot;Fifty and Sixty 



Flowers 



I. 



RLY all the village says with regret that the 

 Jweather is not seasonable ; and the faith is almost 

 ^universal that seasonable weather is healthy 

 weather. Christmas appetites are sharper if the ground 

 is white ; and the close association of health and appetite 

 is unquestioned. It is a tradition that Christmas always 

 used to be white, and perhaps no single day of weather 

 has remained so firm in tradition as Christmas Eve 

 seventy-four years ago when the owner of the news 

 paper shop was nineteen when the Ouse froze in the 

 night, and fenmen went to the Christmas services on 

 their skates. Yet some few of the weaker vessels confess 

 to a liking for the mild, open weather. It shortens the 

 winter so ; and the old lady who stands for hours with 

 one foot on the pavement and one on the floor of her 

 sitting-room, a foot lower in level, explains the misery of 

 a long winter : she has only one set of winter under 

 wear ; and cannot change till the warm weather comes 

 round again. It is a grim waiting. 



For the rest of the village is not so greatly altered as 

 you might fear- The blacksmith is a born artist, even 

 better at his craft, I suspect, than his forbears, who ful 

 filled the almost forgotten task of making shoes for 

 heavy horses. The river still winds its sluggish way 



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