MARCH WINDS 



and the mild melancholy of decay would 

 prevail as it does in some swamps where 

 sheltering surrounding hills and close 

 growth shunt the gales. 



Yet, though house-cleanings are no 

 doubt necessary and beneficient, few of 

 us love them, and we hail with equal joy 

 the resultant cleanliness and the cessation 

 of the uproar. The two days' gale finally 

 got all the winds of the world piled up 

 somewhere to the southward and ceased, 

 and the piled-up atmosphere drifted back 

 over us, bringing mild blue haze that was 

 like smoke from the fires of summer float- 

 ing far. All things that had been taut 

 and dense relaxed into dimples or softened 

 into tears. The frost went out of the 

 plowed fields that morning, though the 

 sun was too blurred with the kindly blue 

 mist to have any force. It was just the 

 general relaxation which did it. 

 49 



