242 IValks in New England 



Winter Takes Possession 



WINTER, with unusual attention to the 

 conventionalities of the calendar, has 

 taken possession of the land. The 

 mercury that had been so bravely maintaining a 

 mild fall, took a wild fall itself, down below zero, 

 and all the muddy country roads froze rougher 

 than corduroy, and men and oxen walked abroad 

 with cloudy breath and icicle-hung whiskers. All 

 night the frost tightened ; in the forbidding moon 

 light the earth looked weird and desolate; the 

 woods echoed with curious snapping sounds, may 

 be from cracks in the freezing ground, or may be 

 twas the sap in deluded saplings that had misun 

 derstood the blandness of November. 



The early morning revealed the pastures glitter 

 ing with crystal and the willows and alders along 

 the watercourses sparkled in the frosty day. The 

 partridges that started suddenly, surprised from 

 frugal breakfasts by the roadside, and whirred 

 with booming pinions to the woods, assured the 

 traveler that links with the abounding forest life 



