WILD LIFE ON THE WING 
of her children who die in the frost-time. Yet 
all through the bitter night his heart faithfully 
drove the sluggish blood through his veins, 
and would not let him freeze. 
The moonshine went the road which the sun 
had gone, but before the shadow of the tower 
had passed from the roof the bells rang in the 
keen red dawn of Christmas Day. The great 
carillon of St. John pealed, and every lesser 
spire in Durrowmore and all the country round 
chimed an answer in jubilation. The lamps 
in the church below glowed ruby-red through 
the robes of St. Mary the Virgin and of 
St. Joseph, whose exalted faces looked up to 
Heaven from the clerestory windows, until 
the first sunbeam quenched their light as it 
had already quenched that of the morning 
star ; and the people trooped along the frosty 
streets to worship. 
lolar awoke. Had there been a drop of 
moisture on those barren roofs he would have 
been frozen to the slates, trap and all, but every 
gutter and gable was bone-dry as dry as his 
throat. Waking to fuller consciousness of 
misery, he saw the daws sit in a row upon the 
sacristy roof below him. Cudog, their leader, 
grey-naped and saucy, turned a shrewd eye 
upon him and jeered : " What-ho ? " Sitting 
up there was he, and impotent ? Let them 
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