WINTRY DAYS 271 



can best be seen. As daylight increases, the white 

 waste becomes more distinct. A golden glimmer 

 spreads on the eastern horizon. At first it seems 

 to tremble, as though afraid ; but soon the bright- 

 ness spreads from hill to hill, and reveals vast 

 lakes of mist in the valleys, and narrower but 

 denser rolls lying along the steep hollows, like 

 limbs of some mighty spirit asleep in the depths, 

 and stretched in careless security from combe to 

 combe, lulled by the murmurs of the streams. 



The blaze increases ; and the dew-tipped hedge 

 gives answering gleams. The upland birds wel- 

 come the brightness ; and the lark begins to sing. 

 The fields are warming, save where the impene- 

 trable grey shadow reigns. Still brighter glow the 

 beams. As though angry, they seem to dissolve 

 the inert obstructive masses. Trees emerge from 

 the obscurity ; but they have no golden leaves to 

 shed in a lavish largesse athwart the slanting rays. 

 Farther afield they still loom as shapeless, gloomy 

 masses. 



The retreat begins. From narrow gorges among 

 the hills glide sinuous lengths of dense fog, 

 monsters of miasma, driven forth by the sun, and 



