FACES OF JANUS 



and slowly puts him to sleep in a delicious 

 dream of warmth. Tropical lightning has 

 not the calm omnipotence of cold when 

 it walks lonely ways. 



January knows days on which the haze 

 of spring and the dun tenderness of the 

 sunshine tempt the rabbit to try another 

 nap al fresco, indiscreet though he knows 

 it to be. Even the woodchuck must turn 

 over and sniff in his sleep as the thaw 

 creeps downward; and the muskrat takes 

 his safe way by water once more, while the 

 steel trap waits on the bank, to be sprung 

 humanely by a falling cone. The lithe red 

 fox glides across the upper pastures and 

 weaves among the hardhack unchallenged, 

 for this is not hunting weather. A fleet- 

 ing respite comes to the tormented mink. 

 Toward the last of the month, innocent 

 of the February and March to come, pussy 

 willows, ingenuously deceived by the 

 brief mildness, come out inquisitively and 

 stand in expectation beside the brook, 

 convinced that this ice is only left over 

 what can have delayed the garnet-veined 

 skunk's cabbage, always on hand the 

 first of all? So many willows are needed 

 by the florists that perhaps they do not 

 13] 



