44 A GOOD WORD FOR WINTER. 



slump through, with no fault of his own, where the boy 

 would have skimmed the surface in safety, it would be 

 better for all parties. However, when you do get a crust 

 that will bear, and know any brooklet that runs down a 

 hill-side, be sure to go and take a look at him, especially if 

 your crust is due, as it commonly is, to a cold snap follow 

 ing eagerly on a thaw. You will never find him so cheerful. 

 As he shrank away after the last thaw, he built for himself 

 the most exquisite caverns of ice to run through, if not 

 &quot;measureless to man&quot; like those of Alph, the sacred river, 

 yet perhaps more pleasing for their narrowness than those 

 for their grandeur. What a cunning silversmith is Frost ! 

 The rarest workmanship of Delhi or Genoa copies him but 

 clumsily, as if the fingers of all other artists were thumbs. 

 Fernwork and lacework and filagree in endless variety, and 

 under it all the water tinkles like a distant guitar, or 

 drums like a tambourine, or gurgles like the Tokay of an 

 anchorite s dream. Beyond doubt there is a fairy proces 

 sion marching along those frail arcades and translucent 

 corridors. 



&quot; Their oaten pipes blow wondrous shrill, 

 The hemlock small blow clear.&quot; 



And hark ! is that the ringing of Titania s bridle, or the 

 bells of the wee, wee hawk that sits on Oberon s wrist 1 

 This wonder of Frost s handiwork may be had every winter, 

 but he can do better than this, though I have seen it but 

 once in my life. There had been a thaw without wind or 

 rain, making the air fat with grey vapour. Towards sun 

 down came that chill, the avant-courier of a north-westerly 

 gale. Then, though there was no perceptible current in the 

 atmosphere, the fog began to attach itself in frosty roots 

 and filaments to the southern side of every twig and grass- 

 stem. The very posts had poems traced upon them by this 

 dumb minstrel. Wherever the moist seeds found lodgment 

 grew an inch-deep moss fine as cobweb, a slender coral-reef, 

 argentine, delicate, as of some silent sea in the moon, such 

 as Agassiz dredges when he dreams. The frost, too, can 



