xvi LETTERS TO MARCO loi 



snow which played such havoc with the 

 telegraph poles on the railways ; since then 

 the country round here has been entirely 

 covered with snow, and though it has thawed 

 occasionally the frost and snow returned 

 again directly. 



I was very much amused, on the first 

 morning of the snow, with my cousin Gertrude 

 Leslie, who ran out into the deep snow in the 

 garden with delight, but suddenly exclaimed, 

 "Why, it's wet!" she being accustomed all 

 her life to the dry snow of America, in which 

 children can play without getting wet. 



My garden is whiter than ever now. The 

 snow giants the children made on the lawn 

 look very formidable ; one is an Elizabethan 

 lady with ruff and farthingale, a style of 

 costume which is easily rendered in snow. 



The river is in flood, the meadows on its 

 banks being covered with frozen flood-water 

 and snow. The riverside folks here all 

 believe in the theory of what they call 

 ground-ice, which is, they say, ice that is 



