All the creatures, fur and feather, Cuddle close this snowy weather; Chippy Chipmunk ’neath a tree In his home as safe can be. Squirrel Nutkin when it snows Hides his head beneath the clothes Of his little wooden bed In the oak tree overhead. And within the Bramble Patch Little Rabbit’s drawn the latch. Everyone’s almost asleep Waiting for the Spring’s first peep. Chilly Mr. North Wind blows from his home at the North Pole, making his snow horses whirl over the Sunny Meadow and along the Old Rail Fence. Timmy Meadowmouse makes little tunnels through the snow, for he is too small to walk over the drifts. But Danny Fox, that sly old robber, sneaks along the bare places so as to leave no footprints to show where he has been. Sometimes he turns to the Shady Forest, and sometimes to the farm, where Cocky Doodle and Henny Penny prune their feathers on the sunny side of the High Haystack. The Weathercock swings to and fro on the Big Red Barn and wishes it were Spring. Busy Beaver swims about under the ice in the Forest Pond, coming back to his little house, whose front door is deep down where the water never freezes. In the upper room he has stored away twigs and things to eat till Mr. Merry Sun melts the ice and tells the flowers to bloom again. All the birds have gone south except a few. Charlie Chickadee and Jimmy Junko, though, don’t mind the chilly weather. They flutter here and there, eating the dry seeds that still cling to the tall meadow grass, or the dry berries in the Old Bramble Patch. Peter Possum and his family are curled up in a warm hollow stump, and the Big Brown Bear is snoring in his cave. The earth is clad in snow white, But all the trees are bare. The farmer reads the almanac Within his old arm chair. Good Mrs. Cow safe in the shed Upon the manger rubs her head, And if you listen you can tell How many times she rings her bell. She never takes her collar off For fear she’ll catch the whooping cough. Imagine how that little bell Would tinkle in a coughing spell. |