erape fronds, the syringa’s yellow Bteenk were all in new 
garments, which clung as closely as does the prevailing dress 
of this decade. Even the naked alder trees, whose rose 
madder tips had promised spring, changed to huge ghosts 
that had not followed night into dreamland. The edges of 
Washington Inlet had vanished; she saw no longer a 
sheltered bay, but a boundless sea: for salt water and falling — 
flakes were merged in the distance and formed a wall, which 
_ shut away the rugged farms of the opposite hillside. — 
| Under the low arches of the cedars, dim familiar paths, | 
which were yet bare of snow, stretched away into a strange 
forest. An old sentinel of the “foreworld” stood like a 
_ Gothic spire, its top lost in mistiness, but its lower branches 
seemed occasionally to shiver with delightful memories. 
As the door leading from the living room into the 
_ kitchen was opened, an astonished ‘“che-ay’”’ announced that 
his mightiness, the Steller Jay had been disturbed at one 
of his regular meals at the bird table, just outside of the 
_ wide window. With a spring of the strong, black legs and 
a flap of the blue wings, he rushed into the shadows of the 
nearest tree, where hidden, as he supposed, from human 
sight, he peered through the white and green masses to see 
if danger were near. Seemingly satisfied, he waited but a 
moment and then returned to his interrupted meal. 
| The watching woman stood still so as to see the bits of 
_ hash, mush and pieces of bread get tucked in rapidly at each 
tap of the black beak upon the table. Wider and wider grew 
the distance between the mandibles, larger and larger the 
_ pelican-like pouch of his gray throat, yet he kept forcing 
food in at the end of the yawning cavity, while } it dribbled 
out at the edges. | 
Fearing disaster, ie. woman moved, and away went 
the bird with his mouthful, but his place was taken almost 
at once by an Oregon Towhee. Keeping its face toward the 
- observer, it looked over the “bill of fare” and attacked the 
seed spread in this sic: spot by a friendly hand the 
OS, 
