142 LAND OF THE LINGERING SNOW. 



sloped towards the south and commanded a view 

 of a wide bend in the river, and beyond it the 

 beginning of the great Sudbury meadows, now 

 under water and more like a shallow lake than a 

 stream. Kept dry by the pines and in a glow by 

 a fire of dry twigs and pine needles, we watched 

 the strange mingling of seasons before us. An 

 angry sky blotched with luminous white and 

 leaden gray ; a river flowing against the storm, 

 covered with white caps, foam, and the paths of 

 sudden " flaws ; " beyond, flat grass land and a 

 birch wood forming a background for the sway- 

 ing columns of snowflakes, which were whirled up 

 the stream, across the drenched fields and out of 

 sight over the meadows, such was the wintry 

 side of the picture. Nearer, was a grassy slope 

 of the tenderest green flecked with everlasting, 

 saxifrage, anemones, small purple violets of at 

 least two kinds, white violets, innocents, as I love 

 to call houstonia, early buttercups, potentilla, and 

 dandelions. In the pines or within earshot were 

 robins, hermit thrushes, pine warblers, a parula 

 warbler, chipping sparrows, song sparrows, and 

 field sparrows. Such was the spring-like side of 

 the picture. Squall after squall passed, but the 

 warblers sang on, and the swallows skimmed the 

 river and seemed as gay among snowflakes as 

 among sunbeams. 



As the water on the Sudbury meadows was so 



