WOOD-SCENERY IN WINTER. 359 



beauty, a sanctuary of shade, an orchestra of melodious 

 voices. There is perhaps less solemnity within it than 

 when it is darkened by overarching foliage. The sun 

 shines into it and renders some little nooks more cheerful 

 than at any other season. I have often lingered in one of 

 these sunny retreats to watch the chickadees and wood- 

 peckers, that never fail to appear in sight, diligently ex- 

 ploring every branch of the neighboring trees. It is 

 pleasant to woo this solitude when thus enlivened by the 

 sun, to saunter along the turfy wood-paths, still green 

 with clumps of moss and lycopodium, to look up into 

 the lofty trees which have parted with their shade, ob- 

 serving the sculptured elegance of their limbs and the 

 intricate beauty of their spray; pondering on the rare 

 carvings of their bark, broken into many geometrical 

 forms, and the curious devices of nature displayed in the 

 incrustations upon their surface. 



Sometimes a solitary evergreen stands in our way, shed- 

 ding upon the hoary wood some of the greenness of sum- 

 mer. We should know but half of what is open to 

 observation if we never visited the forest in the winter, 

 and we should miss one of the most remarkable features 

 of a winter landscape if the coniferous evergreens were 

 absent from it. Sad and sombre as they appear when the 

 deciduous trees are putting forth -their light-green leaves, 

 they are great heighteners of the beauty of a winter scene, 

 and are more valuable than any other woods as a protec- 

 tion from wind and cold. 



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