GENERAL JIM 169 
to find food around the rotted logs and stumps, 
and under the forest mould. 
The storm came that night. It was the most 
unseasonable storm the oldest crow, or the oldest 
man, could remember. The north wind rose to 
ninety miles an hour. The snow and sleet cut 
like a knife. The cold was almost as intense as 
in winter. Great trees crashed down in the for- 
ests. ‘The frozen sleet and snow covered all food 
as in a case of steel. All the next day the storm 
raged, and no birds could ride it even to search 
for food. On the second morning, the wind 
abated, the snow ceased, and Jim and his com- 
rades, venturing out. hunted for food along the 
edges of streams, and anywhere else they could 
think of. They saw scores of song sparrows and 
robins dead on the ground, and they themselves 
were weak, nor could they find much to eat, so 
coated was everything with sleet and snow. 
Then Jim thought of a certain rocky pasture 
slope and quarry side, in his old home land, which 
lay entirely on a southern hillside, protected by 
pine woods from the north wind. Even in mid- 
winter the snow lay light here, and there were 
