CHAPTER I. 



HOAR-FROST. 



IT was early winter. The ground was covered with snow, 

 but the atmosphere had been laden with a dense falling 

 mist. The temperature falling below the freezing point, 

 throughout the night a zephyr-like wind from the north- 

 east continued to crystallize the moisture on every object, 

 arraying the landscape in a most magnificent hoar-frost. 

 The delicate plumose or spinulose ornaments increased every 

 twig and spear of grass to many times its size. The spray of 

 trees and shrubs seemed almost as dense as when arrayed in 

 a young foliage; telegraph wires were as thick as cables; 

 and the delicate array of spinulose plumes on the evergreens 

 was of greater magnitude than their own dark covering. 

 The exquisite delicacy and beauty of the patterns of crystal- 

 lization were indescribable. The whole landscape was a 

 charming fairy-land. The genius of a Greek mind might 

 well have conceived that all the hosts of rural and sylvan 

 deities had been at work; while, in this inimitable robe of 

 snow-white purity, the Christian theist might read the 

 thoughts of Him who is the Author of the beautiful, as well 

 as of the true and the good. 



