"MID ICY SEAWEED. 197 
and try to murder the pipits, only to discover 
their mistake very quickly. 
Now a bunch of wild-duck would beat by 
on whistling wings; and, again, a vast band, 
like some huge, parti-coloured cloud, of pee- 
wits would go drifting past; whilst ever 
and anon a big gull, cruel-eyed, white, and 
dangerous, would come floating along. 
Then night came down, and all the world 
shuddered and was still. The pipits roosted, 
half-buried in sand and snow, under an old 
boat. They were quite warm, because they 
were well fed and used to it. 
Not so the others near them. In the low 
brier-bushes, in the feathery tamarisks, and 
in the cold, marshy fields were foodless birds, 
freezing stiff in death where they slept— 
thrushes, redwings, blackbirds, larks, and the 
like, who would never wake again. 
