82 



BERTHA 3 VISIT TO HER 



every thing is glittering like diamonds. We ob- 

 served, also, another peculiarly pretty circum- 

 stance : the wet being immediately frozen, every 

 thing was enveloped with thin transparent ice, 

 through which the leaves, and berries, and 

 branches, were distinctly seen. Mary imme- 

 diately repeated these lines : 



Every shrub, and every blade of grass, 

 And every pointed thorn seem'd wrought in glass ; 

 In pearls and rubies rich the hawthorns show, 

 While through the ice the crimson berries glow. 



Already the birds are become tame, and many 

 venture courageously to take crumbs off the 

 window-stones. Poor little birds, this bright 

 clear air, and sunshine, make every body else 

 look gay, while they sit shivering or sadly 

 chirping on the trees ; even the hens and ducks 

 look swelled and melancholy. 



We walked to-day to Franklin's farm, and 

 found him taking advantage of the hardened 

 ground, to put out manure ; he had two carts 

 employed, and all the people seemed trying to 

 keep themselves warm by hard work. 



The field which had been left to remain fallow, 

 will be much improved by this frost, he says. It 

 was a coarse, wet soil, full of lumps of heavy clay ; 

 and he shewed us how much these lumps were 

 already broken. My uncle said that the soil 

 being thus divided, and pulverised, would be 

 greatly mdiprated ; so, as we walked home, I 



