The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-12-13

JACh FROST'S BUSY NIGHT This truth I fain would make most
 cleari
 The strong from me have naught 10
 fear.
 Paddy the Beaver was ready for the coming of Jack Frost none too soon The very night of the day Paddy finished his work on his food pile, his house and his dam, Jack Frost arrived. He came silently and he worked fast. Paddy was asleep at the time. You know he had worked so hard for so many weeks getting ready for winter that he was very tired when he entered his house late in the afternoon and curled up in his snug bedroom for a nap. He was so tired that he slept until the night Was far spent.
 It was just before daylight that Paddy awoke. slipped down through his subway into his pond, swan short distance down near the bottom and then started up to the surface Instead of poking his head out of water, as he expected to, he bumped 1t. Yes, sir, Paddy bumped his head. Of course, he knew instantly what he had bumped it against. It was ice Paddy's pond was frozen over
 Jack Frost has come and I was ready just in time" thought Paddy as he tried couple of times to break the ice and couldn't. "He must have come early last night and worked hard and fast to make this ice sb thick
 Then Paddy dived and swan straight to where the Laughing Brook enters his pond. He knew that there he would find open water. for it takes very cold weather and much of 1t to freeze running water There he poked his head out and drew a long breath It was sharp and clear, that air he filled his lungs with, and 1t made him jingle all over. Then he looked at his pond; it was one great sheet of clear, glistening, smooth ice.
 Paddy looked over at his house. He didn't need to go over to it to know that Jack Frost had been busy there. too. Paddy chuckled. Jack Frost has frozen hard all that mud I cov- cred my house with" said he. talk ing to himself. "He cant freeze 1t too hard to suit me Now I shall feel quite safe. He certainly has been busy"
 Paddy was right Jack Frost had been busy. All through the silly night. for this time he had come without rough Brother North Wind, he had worked fast and hard. The Smiling Pool was frozen over just as was the pond Nof Paddy the Beaver. and above the ice stood the roof of Jerry Musltrats house. Jack Frost hadn't had so much work to do there for Jerry's roof was chiefly of rushes and there was not such a lot of mud to make hard as at Paddys house.
 He had frozen the ground until it was so hard that even the sharp hoof of Lghtfoot the Deer left no mark. He had covered the quiet places on the Big River with Ice and made a beautiful shining fringe of it all along the Laughing Brook. He had erept through cracks in Farmer Browns henhouse and made the hens crowd closer together to keep warm. He had found Peter Rabbit and made Peter jump and skip and scamper about. He had pinched Bobby Coon's nose when he poked 1t out of his hollow tree. and Bobby had decided very promptly that he didn't want to go out, but would sleep instead. All over the Green Meadows and the Old Pasture and through the Green Forest and the Old Orchard went Jack Frost that night and there wasn't a crack so small that he didn'. find 1t and blow his cold breath through 1t. He had come to stay and he meant that everybody should know it. It was a busy night for Jack Frost. Yes. sir-ee. 1t was busy night for Jack Frost. And when morning came some were glad and some were sad, and all knew that the days ahead were for those only who were stout of heart.
 (Copyright, 1921, by T. W. Burgess)
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