150 LAND OF THE LINGERING SNOW. 



tures, or shied in harness, to the terror of nervous 

 women. After passing Wolfborough Junction 

 I watched for traces of winter, but Wakefield 

 and Ossipee were as green as Concord and Cam- 

 bridge. Marigolds shone by the brooks, arbu- 

 tus smiled from the shady banks along the cut- 

 tings, maples glowed red in the descending rays 

 of the sun. The leaves on birches and poplars 

 were well out and brilliant in color. Swallows 

 were skimming over Bearcamp water, and smoke 

 hung over the mountains so that even Cho- 

 corua's peak was not in view until I reached 

 West Ossipee and left the train. 



Half of the country between the Ossipee Moun- 

 tains and Chocorua is a sandy level covered 

 with pitch-pines and scrub-oaks. It is a fine 

 place for blueberries, fires, and pine warblers in 

 summer, for crows, golden rod, and asters in 

 autumn, and for snowdrifts in winter. Now 

 and then one gets a glimpse of a deer among 

 the scrub, and in winter fox tracks are always 

 thick upon the snow which lies heavy upon 

 these plains. As the sun sank low in the west 

 the air became chilly and the snow wrinkles on 

 Chocorua's brow seemed more real. Towards 

 the east a tower of smoke rose into the sky, and 

 at one point I caught a glimpse of the flames 

 not more than a mile away. By seven I was 

 supping at a cosy fireside in Tamworth Iron 



