ight just as well have kept the old
one. I'm dissatisfied, and I've a right to be so."

"Yes; and the people ran about and fired off shots to celebrate the
new year," said a little shivering sparrow; "and they threw pans and
pots against the doors, and were quite boisterous with joy, because
the old year was gone. I was glad of it too, because I hoped we should
have had warm days; but that has come to nothing--it freezes much
harder than before. People have made a mistake in reckoning the time!"

"That they have!" a third put in, who was old, and had a white poll;
"they've something they call the calendar--it's an invention of their
own--and everything is to be arranged according to that; but it won't
do. When spring comes, then the year begins, and I reckon according to
that."

"But when will spring come?" the others inquired.

"It will come when the stork comes back. But his movements are very
uncertain, and here in town no one knows anything about it: in the
country they are better informed. Shall we fly out there and wait?
There, at any rate, we shall be nearer to spring."

"Yes, that may be all very well," observed one of the sparrows, who
had been hopping about for a long time, chirping, without saying
anything decided. "I've found a few comforts here in town, which I am
afraid I should miss out in the country. Near this neighbourhood, in a
courtyard, there lives a family of people, who have taken the very
sensible notion of placing three or four flower-pots against the wall,
with their mouths all turned inwards, and the bottom of each pointing
outwards. In each flower-pot a hole has been cut, big enough for me to
fly in and out at it. I and my husband have built a nest in one of
those pots, and have brought up our young family there. The family of
people of course made the whole arrangement that they might have the
pleasure of seeing us, or else they would not have done it. To please
themselves they also strew crumbs of bread; and so we have food, and
are in a manner provided for. So I think my husband and I will stay
where we are, although we are very dissatisfied--but we shall stay."

"And we will fly into the country to see if spring is not coming!" And
away they flew.

Out in the country it was hard winter, and the glass was a few degrees
lower than in the town. The sharp winds swept across the snow-covered
fields. The farmer, muffled in warm mittens, sat in his sledge, and
beat his arms across his br