230 THE BIG BLOW. 
weather you may go out by the process of 
freezing, began to preen busily. 
Later, the rook elders gathered together for 
a council of war. From the point of view of 
human councils of war, it was a disgraceful 
proceeding, conducted without rule, but with 
much heat, and a most scandalous amount of 
talking, loud shouting, strong language, and, 
apparently, complete lack of self-control. But 
this was a council which was always at war, 
and always had been at war. The problem 
it had to solve was how to skirmish enough 
food where seemingly no food existed ; to fill 
the crops of the flock, and so prevent them 
from freezing where they roosted the next 
night. 
As suddenly as it had begun, the president, 
our old particular rook, appeared to break off 
‘the whole palaver by flying away heavily and 
slowly over the wood and the fields, which 
looked positively black under the frost. The 
air was still, and the old rook didn’t like it. 
So he moved, with che flock trailing out after 
him, at his second-best speed. 
Not, mark you, that the flight was quite in 
a straight line. He was going to the shore, 
where perhaps everything hadn’t frozen as it 
had inland, but there were diversions by the 
way. 
