But it couldn't last forever, and they knew it. Knowing this was all
that kept some of them alive.
You see, they were starving. Yes, Sir, they were starving. You and I
would be very hungry, very hungry indeed, if we had to go without food
for two whole days, but if we were snug and warm it wouldn't do us
any real harm. With the little wild friends, especially the little
feathered folks, it is a very different matter. You see, they are
naturally so active that they have to fill their stomachs very often
in order to supply their little bodies with heat and energy. So when
their food supply is wholly cut off, they starve or else freeze to
death in a very short time. A great many little lives are ended this
way in every long, hard winter storm.
It was late in the afternoon of the second day when rough Brother
North Wind decided that he had shown his strength and fierceness long
enough, and rumbling and grumbling retired from the Green Meadows and
the Green Forest, blowing the snow clouds away with him. For just a
little while before it was time for him to go to bed behind the Purple
Hills, jolly, round, red Mr. Sun smiled down on the white land, and
never was his smile more welcome. Out from their shelters hurried all
the little prisoners, for they must make the most of the short time
before the coming of the cold night.
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