164 NATURE STUDY. 



aging, but I disliked to turn back then and so pushed on. 

 Aside from the walking all was attractive and beautiful. 

 The oaks, white and scarlet, still had a portion of their 

 leaves that now and then rustled in the ghost of a breeze 

 that passed by. Except this, all was quiet, except the 

 scream of a blue jay that sounded afar off as I entered the 

 wood. Soon all signs of civilization were out of sight and 

 I might have been in some wilderness for aught I could 

 see. On the further side of a clearing was once a lumber 

 camp. All was gone now. The slab hut that once shel- 

 tered the choppers had been burned. It was here that a 

 phcebe's nest was found a few years ago balanced by its 

 bird builders on a clothes line that hung in the deserted 

 building. Only the four posts that stood at the corners 

 of the structure now made cones of snow that indistinctly 

 marked its location. A track crossed the path I was fol- 

 lowing where a fox had traveled, hunting for the food that 

 must have been scarce in the deep snow. The chirp of a 

 chickadee on a tree near by was the most sociable thing in 

 hearing. In a cleared place the crust was strong enough 

 to hold my weight. For a ways I walked carefully, half 

 sliding through the upper snow for fear of breaking the 

 crust. Then it gave way and I was once more plowing 

 along laboriously. Several small but steep ascents were 

 discouraging, but I had gone too far then to turn back. 

 One more little hill and I would be near the swamp where 

 not only the white cedar is found but the rhododendron 

 and at least one other plant that here grows far from other 

 individuals of the same species. The trees were appar- 

 ently doing their best to make the place cheerful. The 

 staminate catkins of the alder showed that they were ready 

 for the spring that seemed so far away. The hazel buds 

 were as far advanced. The witchhazel blossoms had shed 

 their petals but a few weeks before, and now were less 

 conspicuous than the seed pods, a year older, that had 



