A FROZEN WORLD 231 



crowfoot spreads its white sheet of tender bloom ; 

 the whirligig dances anew ; the newts acquire their 

 red and orange spots and their decorative crests ; 

 strange long-legged creatures stalk on stilts over 

 the glass of the calm bays, and tadpoles swarm 

 black and fat in the basking shallows. The pond, 

 it seems, was not dead but sleeping. Spring 

 sounds its clarion note, and all nature is alive 

 again. 



