WINTER FROLICS. 41 
It has been much misunderstood, and therefore 
much abused, for there are persons who will ever 
and anon malign that which is above their com- 
prehension. 
It is just possible that the weather may sometimes 
become too cold in the winter for open-air exercise ; 
but the winter of 1890-1891, with its occasional 
snow-storms, its alternating days of rain and clear 
sunshine, was an almost ideal one for the rambler. 
There were times when the woods were ‘clad in 
robes more beautiful than the green of spring or 
the brown of autumn; when I was compelled to 
exclaim with a Scottish poet, — 
** Now is the time 
To visit Nature in her grand attire.” 
I mean those days when every twig and branch 
was “ridged inch-deep with pearl,” making the 
woodland a perfect network of marble shafts and 
columns. 
As to the feathered tenants of the woods, they 
were almost as light-hearted and gay as in the 
season of sunshine and flowers, save that they were 
not so prolific of song. Quite a number of interest- 
ing species were the constant companions of my 
winter loiterings, and several of them occasionally 
regaled me with snatches of melody. Among our 
winter songsters is the hardy Carolina wren. On 
December and January days when the weather was 
quite cold, his vigorous bugle echoed through the 
woods, Chid-le-lu, chil-le-lu, or, Che-wish-year, che- 
