WILDWOOD WAYS 



changes in temperature produced by the 

 warmth of the morning sun on the thick 

 ice. Yet the uproar began after the sun 

 had been shining for an hour or two, and 

 it ceased within a half-hour. That night 

 came the south blow and a warm storm. 



In the whirligig of our New England 

 winter weather the soft rain and strong 

 south wind passed. Then the wind blew 

 strong from the northwest and fair skies 

 and low temperature prevailed for some 

 days, welding the erstwhile softened ice 

 into an elastic surface as resonant as tem- 

 pered steel. Then came a still warm day 

 in which we had the same increase of tem- 

 perature under springlike skies as on that 

 previous day. Yet the pond never uttered 

 a word audible to my listening human 

 ears. Here were the conditions like those 

 of the other message period, yet not a 

 word was said. Even the soft haze which 

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