AUNT SUE'S SNOWBANK 293 



points. The first real flakes of this storm showed 

 as soon on the top tassels of these young pines as 

 they did in the bare fields. 



As the storm progressed, the lower needles of 

 the spike caught such as got by the filled tops and 

 soon all the needles of the young trees were filled 

 with fluffy white snow, until the trees from tip to 

 butt were no longer green but white, most royally 

 robed in spotless purity. There was no soot in 

 this whiteness, all that the air held had been 

 swept from it by the very first of the storm. No 

 cherry tree in the full fragrance of May bloom 

 could show such dainty beauty, such endearing 

 florescence as these young pines on the borders 

 of the deep wood. Nor could the pines do better 

 for their own protection than this. Ice which 

 encases their tender rootlet's in the frozen ground 

 and holds them warm and safe through the most 

 severe cold, came out of the sky with the storm 

 for the safety of tender twigs and young buds. 

 Snow crystals hold entangled within their mass 

 eight or ten times their own bulk of air. It is 

 this entangled air, whether in the fluff of a woolen 

 blanket or in a snowfall, that fends from the 

 cold. The first clear night after a snowfall is al- 

 most sure to be a bitter one. Calm follows the 



