THE "FAIRY RING" 

 AND THE FAIRY 



January I2th 



HE rabbits, mice, and birds all leave their 

 own peculiar and unmistakable autographs 

 their " hands and seals"- in the snow, 

 but they are not responsible for all the sin- 

 gular hieroglyphics to be seen on this great 

 white page. The wind often takes a hand, 

 and after a light, fresh snow-fall plays pretty 

 pranks with the drooping stems of some of the 

 withered grasses; a single grass -blade under 

 the influence of varying playful breezes tracing 

 a puzzling variety of inscriptions. 

 Various degrees of proficiency are exhibited by these 

 queer writings; some being clusters of eccentric touch- 

 es, cutting the snow in odd lines, like stenographic 

 notes, as it were, made by our artist on the spot, as 

 though quickly jotting down some racy incident of furry 

 life which was passing at the moment. I have seen 

 these queer inscriptions on the fresh-fallen snow when I 

 was utterly at a loss to explain their origin, until the 

 thought of the wind suggested a clew, and by bending 

 down the tip of a long neighboring grass- blade I was 

 enabled to add to the written score so perfectly that I 

 doubt if either old Boreas or gentle zephyr, whichever 

 may have been the writing-master, would have been 



