The girls had filled small cardboard boxes with seeds, had pressed peanut butter into pine cones and had fixed tiny baskets of suet and bread crumbs ready for tying onto the evergreen limbs.
When everyone was ready, the Brownies set off on their hike, Miss Gordon leading the way.
The snow was very deep, which made walking quite hard. However, the Brownies soon emerged on a firmly-packed road, which wound on toward Mr. Jeffert’s farm.
Coming to a rustic bridge, Miss Gordon paused a moment so that the Brownies might catch their breath.
“May we hike through the woods?” Jane requested. “The trees are so pretty beyond the log fence. I am sure we could find one there that would be just right for the birds’ Christmas tree.”
“Mr. Jeffert doesn’t mind if we go on his land,” the Brownie leader replied. “I telephoned him this morning to inquire.”
The girls climbed the rail fence and followed Miss Gordon through the maze of evergreens. Never had they seen such a beautiful forest of Christmas trees. The needles of the pines and spruces glistened with ice and flashed like diamonds under the bright morning sun.
The Brownies walked slowly, studying each tree as a possible feeding station for the birds.
Finally Jane came to one which exactly suited her. It was a little higher than her head, well filled out, and perfectly shaped.
“This is just the place!” she proposed.