XXIII. 

 AFTER THE SNOWSTORM. 



WE have had a heavy fall of snow during the night. 

 Snow has fallen continuously for the last twelve hours, 

 and fields and woods, park, garden, and shrubbery, are 

 covered with a soft fleecy mantle of dazzling white. 

 There has been but little wind, consequently the trees 

 and bushes are decked with snowy wreaths, and the 

 evergreens are bending under their pure white shroud. 

 If we go out into the fields and woods before dawn, we 

 shall find much to interest us in the snow. How still 

 everything appears ; how cold and cheerless ; yet how 

 beautiful and picturesque the country looks in its pure 

 unsullied white ! Though it wants an hour to sunrise, 

 the snow makes the world look light, as if the day had 

 already broke. We will pass the little trout-stream, 

 gurgling so loudly in the stillness of night, and cross the 

 two intervening fields and wait for sunrise in the 

 shrubbery. The air is bitingly cold out here on the 

 open hills, and we shall find it warmer amongst the 

 trees. As we walk along we cannot help admiring the 



