NOVEMBER. 331 



their green transparency ; the hum of bees ; the crinking of 

 grasshoppers ; the arrowy flight of the dragon-fly ; the bright- 

 winged butterfly ; the little pearly moths hurrying from bush 

 to bush ; and the thousands of little insects, too minute for 

 enumeration,, almost too minute for vision, which throng the 

 air, reflecting tiny flashes of light in every direction from 

 their filmy wings, make the summer full of life and joyous- 

 ness. Now, all this has ceased : the fields are deserted by 

 the husbandman ; no insects flit to and fro ; no leaves glit- 

 ter in the sun; now and then the quick rattle of the red 

 squirrel is heard, or a few crows caw as they sail over the 

 woods, or a blue jay raises a discordant scream as he flies 

 from one tree-top to another, or the black-capped titmouse 

 twitters a few moments from the branches of some thick 

 balsam, or a sere beech-leaf slowly rustles to the ground; 

 but all these are casual interruptions, only heard at inter- 

 vals, and seem to make the intervening silence still more 

 dead. 



CHARLES. The solitude, however, is not unpleasing ; the 

 brightness of the sun and the freshness 'of the morning air 

 prevent anything like a tendency to melancholy. 



F. How extremely beautiful are all the forms of conge- 

 lation ! whether we examine the filmy star-like flakes of 

 snow ; the needles shooting across the surface of freezing 

 water ; the curled and fantastic leaves traced upon the win- 

 dow-pane ; the curious spongy masses of columnar ice formed 

 among the furrows of ploughed land, or the delicate hoar 

 frost on the lowly herbage ; each forms a volume in itself, 

 and each is a monument of skill and wisdom. Look at this 

 stalk of grass : how elegantly is it decorated ! a thick series 

 of white crystals, like glassy feathers, stand out at right an- 

 gles from the stalk, radiating in every direction, and extend- 

 ing not only all up the main stem, but even to the remotest 

 extremities of the panicle. 



