290 J^alks in New England 



foxes mark the woodland with paths, so had the 

 cats and dogs streaked the wilderness of the 

 streets and gardens with their signs pedal. Grad 

 ually as the day grew toward noon the streets be 

 came curiously diversified with trails, those who 

 had to pass through taking the middle of the 

 road so far as might be, but describing long 

 curves or sharp diagonals, to take advantage of 

 the lowest grades ; and sometimes, confronted by 

 an absolutely forbidding drift across the whole 

 highway, the trails led directly over miniature 

 Alps and White Mountains. Fences were largely 

 not matters of faith, but of pure supposition, and 

 great drifts rose even to second-story windows, 

 covered hen-houses in sepulchral mounds, or 

 combed up like ocean waves 12 or 15 feet high, 

 poising there as if a moment more might dash 

 them to break in foam against the assailed houses. 

 Main street was a marvelous sight in the 

 morning, nor less so when the clearing of the 

 sidewalks had heaped the sides of the streets as 

 they were never heaped before. Up Harrison 

 avenue a long notched ridge, a veritable Sierra 

 Nevada, reared its imposing bulk ; Market street 

 up to noon was a wild stretch of mountain and 

 valley. The Hill showed the freakish mischief 

 of the gale that swept out gullies and canons 

 where no one wanted to go, to pile full the 



