Before the first month passed, he was fairly easy about his job; by the next he rather liked it.  Nature can be trusted to work her own miracle in the heart of any man whose daily task keeps him alone among her sights, sounds, and silences.

When day after day the only thing that relieved his utter loneliness was the companionship of the birds and beasts of the swamp, it was the most natural thing in the world that Freckles should turn to them for friendship.  He began by instinctively protecting the weak and helpless.  He was astonished at the quickness with which they became accustomed to him and the disregard they showed for his movements, when they learned that he was not a hunter, while the club he carried was used more frequently for their benefit than his own.  He scarcely could believe what he saw.

From the effort to protect the birds and animals, it was only a short step to the possessive feeling, and with that sprang the impulse to caress and provide.  Through fall, when brooding was finished and the upland birds sought the swamp in swarms to feast on its seeds and berries, Freckles was content with watching them and speculating about them.  Outside of half a dozen of the very commonest they were strangers to him.  The likeness of their actions to humanity was an hourly surprise.

When black frost began stripping the Limberlost, cutting the ferns, shearing the vines from the trees, mowing the succulent green things of the swale, and setting the leaves swirling down, he watched the departing troops of his friends with dismay.  He began to realize that he would be left alone.  He made especial efforts toward friendliness with the hope that he could induce some of them to stay.  It was then that he conceived the idea of carrying food to the birds; for he saw that they were leaving for lack of it; but he could not stop them.  Day after day, flocks gathered and departed:  by the time the first snow whitened his trail around the Limberlost, there were left only the little black-and-white juncos, the sapsuckers, yellow-hammers, a few patriarchs among the flaming cardinals, the blue jays, the crows, and the quail.

Then Freckles began his wizard work.  He cleared a space of swale, and twice a day he spread a birds’ banquet.  By the middle of December the strong winds of winter had beaten most of the seed from the grass and bushes.  The snow fell, covering the swamp, and food was very scarce and difficult to find.  The birds scarcely waited until Freckles’ back was turned to attack his provisions.  In a few weeks they flew toward the clearing to meet him.  During the bitter weather of January they came halfway to the cabin every morning, and fluttered around him as doves all the way to the feeding-ground.  Before February they were so accustomed to him, and so hunger-driven, that they would perch on his head and shoulders, and the saucy jays would try to pry into his pockets.