96 WINTER SUNSHINE 



touching everything, filling everything. The sky 

 visibly came down. You could see it among the 

 trees and between the hills. The sun poured him- 

 self into the earth as into a cup, and the atmosphere 

 fairly swam with warmth and light. In the after- 

 noon I walked out over the country roads north of 

 the city. Innumerable columns of smoke were going 

 up all around the horizon from burning brush and 

 weeds, fields being purified by fire. The farmers 

 were hauling out manure ; and I am free to confess, 

 the odor of it, with its associations of the farm and 

 the stable, of cattle and horses, was good in my nos- 

 trils. In the woods the liverleaf and arbutus had 

 just opened doubtingly ; and in the little pools great 

 masses of frogs' spawn, with a milky tinge, were 

 deposited. The youth who accompanied me brought 

 some of it home in his handkerchief, to see it hatch 

 in a goblet. 



The month came in like a lamb, and went out 

 like a lamb, setting at naught the old adage. The 

 white fleecy clouds lay here and there, as if at rest, 

 on the blue sky. The fields were a perfect emerald ; 

 and the lawns, with the new gold of the first dan- 

 delions sprinkled about, were lush with grass. In 

 the parks and groves there was a faint mist of foli- 

 age, except among the willows, where there was not 

 only a mist, but a perfect fountain-fall of green. In 

 the distance the river looked blue ; the spring fresh- 

 ets at last over; and the ground settled, and the 

 jocund season steps forth into April with a bright 

 Mid confident look. 



