44 FEBRUARY. 



the inland country can exhibit in all the twelve 

 months, a scene mixed with no slight touches 

 of the grotesque. Wherever you go, the peo- 

 ple, perhaps suddenly aroused from the tran- 

 quil fireside of a Sunday afternoon, are swarm- 

 ing upon the roofs of their houses like bees 

 startled from their cells, by the unexpected ap- 

 pearance of some formidable intruder, toiling to 

 resist the outrageous attack of the storm upon 

 the thatch ; which is, here and there, torn clean 

 from the rafters, and in other places heaves and 

 pants as if impatient to try a flight into the next 

 fields, or garden. There is an universal erec- 

 tion of ladders, a bustling, anxious laying-on of 

 logs, rails, harrows, or whatever may come to 

 hand to keep down the mutinous roof. Old 

 wives, with spectacled noses, and kerchiefs in- 

 continently tied over their mob-caps, are seen 

 reconnoitring pig-sties, hen-roosts, etc. lest 

 they be blown down, or something be blown 

 down upon them. What a solemn and sublime 

 roar too there is in the woods a sound as of 

 tempestuous seas ! Whatever poetical spirit can 

 hear it without being influenced by incommu- 

 nicable ideas of power, majesty, and the stu- 

 pendous energies of the elements ! 



Oh storm and darkness, ye are wondrous strong ! 



