DID you ever stand by the window on a Wintry Day, watching the Merry Little Snowflakes come dancing down, and wonder what all the Wild Creatures were doing? To be sure you have, unless you live in a country where the Fleecy Snow never falls.

When this earth was first created, there was no such thing as Fleecy Snow upon it. God never intended that Old Man Winter should freeze the Dancing Little Leaflets and make them fall. There was not even rain upon the earth until the time of the Flood. But when sin entered the world, there were many, many changes.

At creation the weather was neither too cold nor too hot. It was just right to please every living thing. The Feathered Friends did not have to fly away in search of a warmer place to live, as many of them do now each fall. And the Furry Friends lived just the same the year round.

But how different it is now! Even Fearful the Man has had to change his manner of living to meet the changed conditions. Every place we go in the Great Wide World we see people who are living differently from the way they do in other places.

And so it is with the Wild Creatures. They have learned how to live under the changed conditions in this sinful world, which are so different from what they were in the Garden of Eden.

In this, the last of OLD HOMESTEAD TALES, You will read about what the Wild Creatures do in Wintry Weather on the Old Homestead. Perhaps it will tell you some of the things you were wondering about as you stood by the window and watched the Merry Little Snowflakes come dancing down.

THE AUTHOR. Denver, Colorado,

July 23,1930.

CHAPTER 1 Jack Frost Appears

IT WAS a cool night in September when Jack Frost first stole out with his paintbrush and began to paint all the Dancing Little Leaflets on the Old Homestead beautiful colors. Yes, sir, it was a very cool night. Jack Frost was the son of Old Man Winter, and whenever Jack began to paint the Quaking Aspen Trees a bright yellow, and the Oaks brown and red, and the Maples gold and red, every one knew that Old Man Winter was not far away. You should have seen the beautiful scarlet color he painted the Twining Vines that had crept up the side of the Grand Old House.

It seemed as if when Jack Frost once got started to coloring around the Old Homestead, he never knew when to stop. He daubed the Dancing Little Leaflets in the Apple Orchard a bright lemon; and how pretty they were beside the Flaming Red Apples! Then he went down along Little River, which flowed through the Wide-Wide Pasture and the Green Meadow, and touched first a Drooping Willow Tree here and then a patch of Blackberry Brambles there, and then he stopped in the Rustling Cornfield long enough to turn it into a fashionable tan color.

After that Jack Frost went to work in the Black Forest, and he just daubed right and left with his paintbrush. In a little while you never would have known it was the same Black Forest if it had not been for all the Great Pine Trees and Blue Spruce Trees. Of course, he could not paint them, for they were green all winter.

How busy every one became when Jack Frost first hinted that Old Man Winter would soon arrive! Every morning Mr. Smith was out bright and early cutting the Rustling Corn and making it into Rustling Corn Shocks. And then there were Golden Pumpkins to be gathered, and Flaming Red Apples to be picked, and juicy Tomatoes to be canned. And there were carrots and turnips and potatoes to be dug and stored away in the Dark Root Cellar.

It certainly was a busy time for Mr. Smith and Mrs. Smith and Bud and Mary, harvesting all the crops and vegetables before Old Man Winter came and froze them. In a little while that Dark Root Cellar was filled to the top with all kinds of good things to be eaten during the Cold-Cold Days.

And after that there was much wood to be cut and hauled to the Woodshed for the Glowing Fireplace and the Shining Kitchen Stove.

But the Smiths were not the only ones who were busy on the Old Homestead. I should say not. You should have seen how busy the Furry Friends and Feathered Friends were. All some of the Feathered Friends had to do was to spread their wings and fly away to their winter homes in the Sunny Southland when Old Man Winter came too near. Some of them, like Spink the Bobolink, did not even wait for Jack Frost to come, but left the Old Homestead not long after their babies were strong enough to fly that far.

You see, not all the Feathered Friends enjoyed traveling the same way any more than all people do. Some of them, like Spink, wanted to start early and not fly so far all at once. Spink went part way, and then stopped to eat rice and grow fat before he finished his journey. But some of the Feathered Friends, like the Bluebirds and the Mallards and Honker the Goose, waited until the very last minute almost, before they left for the Sunny Southland. But Honker and the Mallards were about the last to leave, and then how fast they did fly!

Some of the Feathered Friends liked to fly at night, while others flew mostly during the day. Then they could stop and find good things to eat as they went along. Wouldn't you think that they would get very, very tired flying so far? But there was Flash the Humming Bird, who was the tiniest of all of them, and he flew right across the Gulf of Mexico! Who would imagine that one as small as he could fly more than five hundred miles in one night, and that across water!

But there were many Feathered Friends who lived on the Old Homestead and in the Black Forest all the year. They were not afraid of Old Man Winter. And, of course, the Furry Friends did not leave, because they could not fly. And so when Jack Frost arrived at the Old Homestead with his Paint Pots, the Wild Creatures that did not leave had much to do.

Every day the Laughing Yellow Sun had moved just a little farther southward. Shorter and shorter grew the days, and colder and colder were the nights.

"Just look at the ice on the water tank!" said Bud to Mary, as they left for school one morning.

"Yes, I suppose the last of the Feathered Friends will soon be leaving for the Sunny Southland. Jim Crow and his cousins Tattler the Jay and Pesty the Magpie will not leave, and neither will Dandy the Chickadee nor his cousin Whitebreast the Nuthatch nor Downy the Woodpecker."

"And Bobby White and Ringneck the Pheasant and Drummer the Grouse and Hungarian the Partridge would not think of leaving the Old Homestead," said Bud.

"Sometimes I wish that I could fly away to the Sunny Southland for a while like Robin Red and Jenny Wren and some of the other Feathered Friends," said Mary. "But then I would not want to miss all the fun of skating, and coasting, and sitting by the Broad Hearth on Wintry Nights."

"Yes, and think how much fun it is to play Fox and Geese in the Fleecy Snow!" said Bud. "Whatever would we do if we lived where there was never any Fleecy Snow?"

Dynamic Drive.