112 



NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 



The awa- 

 kening of 

 naturt. 



The icy landscape is not a sight of any long 

 duration. The sun soon melts the ice, the 

 trees rock in the wind, and the glassy covering 

 slips and rattles upon the frozen ground. When 

 once nature begins to move, it is not easy for 

 cold winds and blustering sleet to stop it. The 

 grass starts under the snow, the early plants 

 begin to stir, the stems and buds grow redder ; 

 and when the last patch of dirty white in the 

 deep gulch among the bowlders is slipping and 

 melting away, the trees above it are perhaps al- 

 ready showing a fuzzy, muffled look, the moss on 

 the bowlders has shot its pale, pin-like points of 

 green upward toward the sun, and the grass 

 grows in thick tufts where the brook winds 

 through the meadow. 



