Auld Licht Idyls

"Early this morning I opened a window in my schoolhouse in the glen of
Quharity, awakened by the shivering of a starving sparrow against the frosted
glass. As the snowy sash creaked in my hand, he made off to the water-spout that
suspends its "tangles" of ice over a gaping tank, and, rebounding from that,
with a quiver of his little black breast, bobbed through the network of wire and
joined a few of his fellows in a forlorn hop round the henhouse in search of
food. Two days ago my hilarious bantam-c**k, saucy to the last, my cheeriest
companion, was found frozen in his own water-trough, the corn-saucer in three
pieces by his side. Since then I have taken the hens into the house. At
meal-times they litter the hearth with each other's feathers; but for the most
part they give little trouble, roosting on the rafters of the low-roofed kitchen
among staves and fishing-rods."

- Excerpted from "Auld Licht Idyls"