FOOTSTEPS OF THE SEASONS. 211 



greenhouse the wax-like camellia, and the starry chrysanthemum. 

 But, best of all is the noble holly, with its coral berries sprinkled 

 amid its glossy leaves, wearing a bold front, and defying winter, and 

 braving unhurt all his storm and darkness. 



"Below a circling fence its leaves are seen, 



Wrinkled and keen ; 

 No grazing cattle through their prickly round 



Can reach to wound ; 

 But as they grow, where nothing is to fear, 

 Smooth and unarmed the pointless leaves appear. 



'♦ And as, when all the summer trees are seen 



So bright and green. 

 The holly leaves their fadeless hues display, 



Less bright than they ; 

 But, when the bare and wintry woods we see, 

 "What then so cheerful as the holly-tree? 



" So serious should my youth appear among 



The thoughtless throng; 

 So would I seem amid the young and gay, 



More grave than they ; 

 That in my age as cheerful I might be, 

 As the green winter of the holly-tree." 



SOUTHET. 



The new year dawns, and the frost deepens, and the stillness 

 becomes more profound. All the trees are leafless, except the few 

 which never shed their green at all ; and the branches stand out in 

 beautiful outline against the sky, as though traced upon it with a 

 pencil. There is no end of delicate lace-like patterns, and exquisite 

 embroidery. But William Cobbett, in his " Rural Rides," has 

 given us a picture of the winter trees, and for us to attempt a descrip- 

 tion after him would be no less thau sacrilege. 



The robin and the wren are among the few birds that sing in 

 January ; and great flights of starlings enliven the desolated fields. 

 Sparrows, and fieldfares, and larks, and redwings, hover about on 

 river banks, searching for insects ; and the blue titmouse may be 

 seen bobbing about in the orchard, pecking oflT the buds which are 

 infected with insects. In the woods there is the woodpecker and 

 the nuthatch, and occasional flocks of wood pigeons, and the golden 

 plovers are busy after every thaw in searching for the worms in the 

 unfrozen swamps. But time passes, and pale lines of green begin to 



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