30 JANUARY. 



upon shivering groups who have but little defence 

 of fire or clothing from its bitterness. Where no 

 light laugh rings through the room ; no song is 

 heard; no romantic tale or mirthful conversation 

 circles amongst smiling faces and happy hearts, 

 but the father, 



111 satisfied keen nature's clamorous call, 



Stretch'd on his straw himself lays down to sleep, 



While through the rugged roof and chinky wall, 

 Chill on his slumbers piles the drifty heap. 



BURNS. 



Where the mother sees not her rosy and laughing 

 children snugly consigned to their warm soft beds ; 

 but contemplates with a heart deadened with the 

 miseries of to-day, and the fears of to-morrow, a 

 sad little squalid crew around her, who, instead of 

 pleasures and pastimes, know only wants and evils 

 which dwarf both body and soul. Where, perhaps, 

 illness has superadded its aggravations, its pains, 

 and languors, to a poverty which renders the com- 

 forts and indulgences of a sick room the most hope- 

 less of all things. These are the speculations to 

 enhance our fireside pleasures, and to make those 

 pleasures fruitful; linking our sympathies to the 

 joys and sorrows of our kind, and arousing us to a 

 course of active benevolence. 



To proceed, however, to the varieties of wintry 

 weather, this month more than all others shows us 



THE CONTINUED FROST a frost that, day after 

 day, and week after week, makes a steady abode 



