THE SHORTEST DAY OF THE YEAR 289 



warms up steadily day by day, and the maximum 

 falls a little later than the longest day, viz. about July 

 14 1 6. In winter the surface of the earth cools a 

 little every day, and the minimum falls about January 

 8 ii. 



The naturalist is little abroad in December. It is 

 Nature's long vacation, and many works of the sun have 

 perished or are to all appearance dead. It is the time 

 to enjoy the works of man. The new books lie in 

 the shops ; the fireside and the study-lamp shine 

 bright " now that the fields are dank and ways are 

 mire." For those who care nothing about books there 

 are the theatre and concert and ball. Even the street- 

 lamps and the roll of carriages help to dispel gloom. 



No doubt there is much to be seen and studied 

 after the leaves have fallen and before the blood stirs 

 again in the veins of Nature. The threads of the 

 web of Life are being gathered up. Careful packing 

 and housing there must needs be ; there are seeds to be 

 protected against frost, pupae to be hidden where the 

 birds cannot find them ; the soil has to be fertilised 

 against a fresh crop. In December, dark, cold and 

 wet, multitudes of living things hold their life some- 

 what as did the shipwrecked Ulysses, heaped over 

 with leaves on the Phaeacian shore, " as when a 

 man has hidden away a firebrand among black ashes 

 on a lonely farm, where there are no neighbours, care- 

 fully saving the seed of the fire, that he may not have 

 to go in search of the kindling spark." l Life is still 

 warm in the branches that seem so dead, in the fallen 

 1 Odyssey, end of Book V. 



U 



