MY WOODLAND INTIMATES 



seen but a world of merry snowflakes dancing 

 their way down to a whitening earth. 



A certain seriousness of purpose, a determina- 

 tion not to loiter, characterized later comers ; for 

 I watched the noiseless procession until darkness 

 fell, and even in the blackness of the night I stole 

 to my window now and then, in the hope of ascer- 

 taining something of the progress of the storm. 

 But only over the way where a solitary street- 

 lamp cast a faint, nickering light could I distin- 

 guish anything. There, against the dim flame, I 

 saw the white army ever hurrying on its earth- 

 ward way, and when morning broke it was still 

 through a veil of falling snow that I caught 

 glimpses of the outer world. 



In the light of day I saw that all the hollows 

 and irregularities of field and road had vanished, 

 and that each roof was represented by a snowy 

 mound. Trunks and limbs of leafless trees were 

 delicately outlined in white, while all the ever- 

 green boughs drooped with the weight of their 

 fair burdens, and every branch of the Norway 

 spruces formed a cradle for the snow. We had 

 already received from the clouds good measure, 

 pressed down and running over, and still the soft 

 flakes fell. 



[98] 



