It's spring.
We'll house the sledges to-day, and begin feeding the dogs on fish."
Each day thereafter the sun rose earlier, the day was longer, and the
air was warmer; and with the warmth there now came the sweet scents of
the budding earth and the myriad sounds of the deep, unseen life of
the forest, awakening from its long slumber in its bed of snow. Moose-
birds chirped their mating songs and flirted from morning until night
in bough and air; ravens fluffed themselves in the sun; and snowbirds
--little black-and-white beauties that were wont to whisk about like
so many flashing gems--changed their color from day to day until they
became new creatures in a new world.
The poplar buds swelled in their joy until they split like over fat
peas. The mother bears come out of their winter dens, accompanied by
little ones born weeks before, and taught them how to pull down the
slender saplings for these same buds. The moose returned from the
blizzardy tops of the great ridges, where for good reasons they had
passed the winter, followed by the wolves who fed upon their weak and
sick. Everywhere were the rushing torrents of melting snow, the
crackle of crumbling ice, the dying frost-cries of rock and earth and
tree; and each night the pale glow of the aurora borealis crept
farther and farther toward the pole in its fading glory.
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