BIRDS ftND NftTURE. 



ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. 

 VOL. IX. FEBRUARY, 1901. No. 2 



FEBRUARY, 



Still lie the sheltering snows, undimmed and white; 



And reigns the winter's pregnant silence still; 



No sign of spring, save that the catkins fill, 



And willow stems grow daily red and bright. 



These are the days when ancients held a rite 



Of expiation for the old year's ill, 



And prayer to purify the new year's will; 



Fit days, ere yet the spring rains blur the sight, 



Ere yet the bounding blood grows hot with haste, 



And dreaming thoughts grow heavy with a greed 



The ardent summer's joy to have and taste; 



Fit days, to give to last year's losses heed, 



To reckon clear the new life's sterner need; 



Fit days, for Feast of Expiation placed! 



Helen Hunt Jackson. 



FROST-WORK. 



These winter nights, against my window-pane 



Nature with busy pencil draws designs 



Of ferns and blossoms and fine spray of pines, 



Oak-leaf and acorn and fantastic vines, 



Which she will make when summer comes again 



Quaint arabesques in argent, flat and cold, 



Like cur.ous Chinese etchings . . . By and by, 



Walking my leafy garden as of old, 



These frosty fantasies shall charm my eye 



In azure, damask, emerald, and gold. 



-Thomas Bailey Aldrich 



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