AUNT SUE'S SNOWBANK 295 



be the best medicine for the pines that we could 

 have. 



It is the air entangled among the snqw crystals, 

 then, which makes the snow blanket, as we often 

 call it, so sure a protection from cold. The 

 ground may have frozen to a considerable depth 

 before the snow comes, but if it stays throughout 

 the winter there is no frost in the earth beneath 

 it when the spring melts it away. No sooner is 

 the ground protected from further freezing from 

 above than the greater warmth below begins to 

 melt the frost and change it to life-giving mois- 

 ture. Because of this warmth from below the 

 sap stirs in the trees long before the temperature 

 in the air above the snow blanket has given it 

 any warrant for such action. It pushes up until 

 the frost-bound trunk denies it further passage 

 and there waits the first brief respite in the air 

 above. Hence in March, though the snow may 

 be still deep on the surface and the mercury in 

 the glass fall well toward zero at night, the fires 

 are started in the maple sugar camps and the 

 pails hung to the trees. We know that no sooner 

 will the sun warm their trunks than the sap will 

 begin to tinkle in the pails, dripping with the 



