air, and a splendid covering for grass and grain that will be apt to last
well into the spring. Anything rather than mud and the alternate freezing
and thawing that are as provoking as a capricious friend."

"Why, Webb, what a burst of sentiment!" said Burt.

"Doctor, the bluebirds seem to come like the south wind that Leonard says
is blowing this morning," Mrs. Clifford remarked. "Where were they last
night? and how have they reached us after such a storm?"

"I imagine that those we hear this morning have been with us all winter,
or they may have arrived before the storm. I scarcely remember a winter
when I have not seen some around, and their instinct guides them where to
find shelter. When the weather is very cold they are comparatively
silent, but even a January thaw will make them tuneful. They are also
migrants, and have been coming northward for a week or two past, and this
accounts for the numbers this morning. Poor little things! they must have
had a hard time of it last night, wherever they were."

"Oh, I do wish I could make them know how glad I'd be to take them in and
keep them warm every cold night!" shy Johnnie whispered to Maggie.

"They have a better mother than even you could be," said the doctor,
nodding at the little girl.

"Have all the bluebirds a mother?" she asked, with wondering eyes.

"Indeed they have, and all the other birds also, and this mother takes
care of them the year round--Mother Nature, that's her name. Your heart
may be big enough, but your house would not begin to hold all the