t to
roost, there had been no suggestion of rain, but a bitter air from
the northwest searching through the woods. The wise old bird, finding
cold comfort on his perch, had bethought him of a trick which many a
time before had served his turn. In the open, where the snow was deep,
he had rocketed down, head foremost, with such force that he was
fairly buried in the light, feathery mass. A little kicking, a little
awkward burrowing, and he had worked his way to a depth of perhaps two
feet. Turning about and lifting his wings gently, he had made himself
a snug nest, where neither wind nor cold could reach him, and where
there was small likelihood that any night marauder would smell him
out. Here in the fluffy stillness he got no word of the change of the
wind, no hint of the soft rain sifting over him. When he woke and
started to revisit the outer world, he found a wall of glass above
him, which his sturdy beak could not break through. A fate that
overtakes many of his kindred had caught him unawares.

While the partridge was resting after his struggles with the
inexorable ice, through which he could look out dimly on the jewelled
world of freedom, a red fox appeared on the edge of the wood. His
crafty eyes fell on the rabbit, and crouching flat, he crept
noiselessly forward. But the crust, strong enough to support the
rabbit, was not strong enough to quite support the heavier animal.
With light, crackling sound one foot broke through, and the rabbit,
with a frightened glance at the most dreaded of all his foes, went
sailing away in long bounds. Soundless though his padded footfalls
were, his flight was accompanied and heralded by a crisp rattling of
icicles as the frozen twigs snapped at his passing.

Laboriously the fox followed, breaking through at every other stride,
but hungry and obstinate, and unwilling to acknowledge himself
baffled. Halfway across the valley, however, he gave up. After pausing
a moment to consider, he retraced his steps, having apparently had
some scheme in mind when diverted by the sight of the rabbit. The
latter, being young and properly harebrained, and aware of his present
advantage, now came back by a great circle, and fell to browsing again
on the birch-twigs. As he fed, however, he kept a sharp eye on the
enemy.

The fox, meanwhile, was growing more and more exasperated. He was
happening upon every weak spot in the crust, and floundering at almost
every step. All at once, as the surfac