Those are my boarders," she added, pointing to the birds, which, one by one, were taking their flight across the fields.

"Ever since the first fall of snow, I have been distributing grain to them once a day.

I think they must tell one another under the trees there, for every day their number increases.

But I don't complain of that.

Just think, these are not birds of passage; they do not leave us at the first cold blast, to find a warmer climate; the least we can do is to recompense them by feeding them when the weather is too severe! Several know me already, and are very tame.