IN JANUARY. 223 



and calves are kept within .lours, and tended with 

 nearly as much care as the farmer's own children. 



" Now shepherds, to your helpless charge be kind; 

 BafTle the raging year, and fill their pens 

 With food at will; lodge them below the storm, 

 And watch them strict; for, from the bellowing east, 

 In this dire season, oft the whirlwind's wing 

 Sweeps up the burden of whole wirit'ry plains 

 At one wide waft, and o'er the helpless iiooks, 

 Hid in the hollow of two neighbouring hills, 

 The billowy tempest 'whelms." 



The plants, at this season, are defended by nature 

 from the effects of cold. Those called herbaceous, 

 which die down to the root every autumn, are safely 

 concealed underground; and the shrubs and trees 

 that are exposed to the open air, have all their soft 

 and tender parts closely wrapped up in buds, which, 

 by their texture, resist the effects of frost? and are 

 hence aptly termed the winter quarters of the young 

 shoots How admirable is the economy of Nature ! 



The earth, at this season, may now be compared 

 io a mother who has been robbed of those children 

 from whom she had the best hopes. She is deso- 

 late, and deprived of the charms which varied and 

 embellished her surface; howeveiyshe is not robbed 

 of all her children ; here and there some vegetables 

 are still to be seen, which seem to defy the severity 

 of the winter; here the wild hawthorn shows its pur- 

 ple berries, and the laurestina displays its blossoms 

 in clusters, crowned with leaves which never fade. 

 The yew-tree rises like a pyramid, and its leaves 



