Winter Morn and Moon 279 



boys and girls are sliding down hill, in the city 

 streets and in the country fields, where over 

 long reaches of the shining crust the home-made 

 sleds dash as merrily as any city rippers, and on 

 the ponds the skaters fly to their iron music, 

 joy to which the pent-up artificial pleasures of the 

 rolling-rink are tame and stupid indeed. The 

 beauty of the winter is not known in the city, any 

 more than the beauty of the summer ; it is not 

 the city that holds the key of &quot; the mystic gates 

 of past and future,&quot; which &quot;not for common fates 

 wide open fling ; &quot; it is beyond the mad city, amid 

 the woods and fields, that the spiritual essence of 

 Nature is offered to the lips of her lovers, whether 

 the earth be royal green or penitential white. 



