aw people
working in the fields and the vineyards, growing rice and grapes and
all the fruits that come from Italy, and always they heard the people
singing beautiful songs of gladness.

"I wonder what makes them so happy?" said the Villain.

"It's because it's such a beautiful country, I guess," said
Sweetclover.

And they flew over the lakes which lie between Italy and Switzerland,
and on all sides were mountains, the tops of which are always covered
with snow.

Soon they came to Switzerland, which is away up in the mountains and
very beautiful.

People travel from all parts of the world to climb these mountains and
to see the wonderful scenery.

"Maybe it's here we are to find Jackie and Peggs' motheranfather,"
said the Villain, "and not at the North Pole at all."

"Oh, I hope so," said Sweetclover.

It was getting very cold now, for you know that the higher you go up
in the air, the colder it gets. That's why there's snow on the
mountain tops. And it began to storm; at first tiny flakes of snow
fell, and then faster and thicker till it was snowing very hard, and
the pigeons could scarcely see where they were flying.

"It seems to me," said the Villain, "that every time I get upon a boat
or a bird or anything, it begins to storm."

By this time it was really a blizzard and one by one the poor pigeons'
wings became so covered with snow they could not fly and fell to the
ground and lay on the snow.

Of course they fell in different places, and Kernel Cob and Jackie Tar
and Sweetclover and the Villain were separated.

Each one looked about for the others as best he could and, after much
searching about, the Villain found Sweetclover huddled in the snow and
very cold indeed. So he pulled off his coat and wrapped it about her
shoulders, although she tried her best to prevent him from making such
a sacrifice, but he said:

"I will certainly suffer more seeing you shiver, than I would from the
cold itself."

You see he was a kind-hearted Villain, and it was too bad that he was
painted to look like one at all.

So he dug a hole in a snowbank and they crawled into it, and in that
way they were shielded from the wind.

Night came on and Kernel Cob and Jackie Tar searched about, but it was
so dark that they could not tell where they were going, but only went
round and round in circles.

In the morning the snow stopped falling, and if it hadn't been so cold
it would have been a very beautiful sight. Snow