FEBETJABY. 67 



branches of a hundred scattered veterans of the forest, 

 whose glazed buds, already preparing for the spring 

 campaign, were not before apparent. The Elm tops 

 display a crowded assemblage of light brown slender 

 twigs ; ' a golden ray now glancing on the Willows 

 shows the vinous hue of their long-extending rods ; 

 the Sycamore displays its buds of pale green ; the 

 still paler catkins of the Birch are seen amidst its 

 quivering branches and silver stems ; in dark array 

 the digitated polished buds of the Wych Hazel 

 appear ; while wherever the sun lights up an avenue 

 of Limes, coral and crimson tints beautify in brilliant 

 but evanescent displays its shadowy arcades. 



Occasionally a charming spectacle is presented to 

 the admiring eye amidst the recesses of the hills, 

 when a shower of rain has frozen as it fell upon 

 the woods and coppices, encasing their buds with an 

 envelope of the most brilliant chrystal. In the 

 vagrant beams of the morning, the trees sparkle 

 with their icy load, as if robed by enchantment, and, 

 as the breeze plays among their topmost branches, 

 a shower of crackling spiculaB falls about on all sides, 

 scaring the chattering Fieldfares and Redwings as 

 they attempt a descent, and swarm about their old 

 accustomed perches; while the frightened Squirrel, 

 leaping madly from bough to bough, increases the 

 noise and the shower in his career; and the blue- 

 winged Jays, ever jealous of an intrusion on their 

 retired haunts, raise their reiterated screams with 

 tenfold pertinacity. Well, we have at last reached a 

 sheltered glade in the wood, a retired nook where 

 " folly is shut out," and yet where the warm sun- 

 beams penetrate to and cheer us after a long per- 



