A YEAR IN THE FIELDS 



THAT is a striking line with which Emer- 

 son opens his beautiful poem of the Snow- 

 Storm : 



" Announced by all the trumpets of the sky, 

 Arrives the snow, and, driving o'er the fields, 

 Seems nowhere to alight." 



One seems to see the clouds puffing their 

 cheeks as they sound the charge of their 

 white legions. But the line is more accu- 

 rately descriptive of a rain-storm, as, in both 

 summer and winter, rain is usually preceded 

 by wind. Homer, describing a snow-storm 

 in his time, says : 



" The winds are lulled." 



The preparations of a snow-storm are, as a 

 rule, gentle and quiet ; a marked hush per- 

 vades both the earth and the sky. The 

 movements of the celestial forces are muf- 

 fled, as if the snow already paved the way 



