Wben (Braes 10 0reen 



dences in all our large cities. I have found them, 

 too, very far from any human habitation. They 

 are quite indifferent to the nearness or remoteness 

 of man, and ask only for food and shelter. To me, 

 their cry, when a number simultaneously utter it, 

 is inexpressibly melancholy. It reminds one of 

 the Ah me ! and Heigh ho ! of very old people, 

 who are indulging in unpleasant retrospection. 



I put the forlorn toad in my boat and after- 

 ward placed him on the remains of a muskrat 

 house. This had been intact until very recently, 

 but now the freshet was working its destruction. 

 Placing the toad in a dry spot, I circled about the 

 house, recalling a day last winter when I came 

 here on foot. 



The day was perfect. It has been said that the 

 darkest hour of night is just before the dawn, and 

 so, too, the brightest days forerun the storm. This 

 is where weather folk-lore has kept within reason. 

 The day was beautiful, and as the mucky meadows 

 were smoothly covered with thick ice, I rambled 

 all over them, forgetting the possibility of air-holes 

 and the course of the swiftly running brook, that 

 keeps fairly open in mid-summer, although rose- 

 mallow, pickerel weed, and lotus crowd its banks 

 and extend into its channel. Now, as I looked 

 across the wide expanse, there was no green thing 

 save the dark cedars on the high ground beyond : 

 but here and there as I looked down through the 

 ice I could see the waving masses of utricularia or 

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