FEBRUARY 



297 



herit it, she has not usurped it. But the 

 place is hers, and her sway there is none to 

 dispute. For her subjects are all her own 

 children, even to the number of several 

 thousands. Late in the year she may share 

 the responsibility with her favored daugh- 

 ters, but in her early career she reigns 

 supreme and alone. The year has a 

 lonely beginning for her. At this season 

 she hangs, cold and stiff, behind some strip 

 of bark, or in some protecting stump. 

 Perhaps, fortunately for her, the cold has 

 benumbed her feelings, for her husband, 

 prince consort but never king, died last 

 fall after a very short married life, and 

 his posthumous children have not yet come 

 to comfort her. 



A PAPER PALACE 



With the first days of spring she sets in- 

 dustriously to work to establish her king- 

 dom. Her palace is a most unsubstantial 

 affair, for she builds it of paper. Very 

 modest indeed are her plans at first. She 

 flies to an old dry limb or to a fence-rail, 



