12 BOBBY LYNX OF BOUND-TOP 
the sides of her head and the tassels of 
stiff, dark hairs that tufted her ears! 
Mother Lynx was very thin, for the 
winter had been a hard one. The cold 
had been very severe and there had been 
many storms that had piled the snow in 
high, white drifts along the foot of the 
Hill and filled the plain with an even car¬ 
pet of white, many feet thick. Food had 
been hard to get. Never had there been a 
worse winter for the little Forest-people 
on Round-Top and many and many a 
night had Mrs. Lynx hunted without 
getting one bite to eat! The partridges 
that she loved so well, buried themselves 
so deep down in the snow that she could 
not find them and the rabbits staved in 
their snug, warm burrows, nibbling at 
such roots as they could get without ven¬ 
turing out into the deep drifts. 
There had been tracks of plenty of deer 
down in the Alder Swamp but, somehow. 
