2i6 BIRD PARADISE 



the streams and among the ponds that requires an 

 entire night to visit. See the equipment in the 

 time of deep snow for such a journey. Snow- 

 shoes, lantern, bag to place the spoils in and 

 plenty of real manly resolution to face storms and 

 the various vicissitudes of such an excursion. I 

 can understand how it offers some inducements 

 to one who cares to be induced in a stirring man- 

 ner. Alone in Mother Nature's great house — the 

 storm raging, winds and snow playing hide-and- 

 seek among the hills — ^the darkness dense and 

 black on every side, why not a place to realize 

 fuUy that the winds are the winds of God, and all 

 the forces of nature playthings in His gracious 

 hands ? There are nuggets of pure gold in the 

 realm of Nature that can only be picked up in 

 such a manner. The trapper going out into the 

 night may well consider himself the eye open to 

 it all under the one, all-seeing eye. He holds in 

 his keeping the key to the ten thousand mysteries 

 all around him. To use the key is to unravel the 

 mysteries, and the mysteries unraveled are open 

 doors, every one of them in heaven. 



I do not know that the chickadees intend any 

 special amount of good to any one by their daily 



