JANUARY 



19 



I see some tree sparrows feeding on the fine 

 grass-seed above the snow. They are flitting along 

 one at a time, commonly sunk in the snow, utter- 

 ing occasionally a low, sweet warble, and seem- 

 ingly as happy there, and with this wintry pros- 

 pect before them for the night and several months 

 to come, as any man by his fireside. One occasion- 

 ally hops or flies toward another, and the latter 

 suddenly jerks away from him. ... At length the 

 whole ten have collected within a space a dozen 

 feet square, but soon after, being alarmed, they 

 utter a different and less musical chirp, and flit 

 away into an apple-tree. 



THOREAU: Winter. 

 2O 



Adown the slopes there are tiny rivulets, which 

 exist only for the winter. Bare, brown spaces of 

 grass here and there, but still so infrequent as only 

 to diversify the scene a little. In the woods, rocks 

 emerging, and, where there is a slope immediately 

 towards the lake, the snow is pretty much gone, 

 and we see partridge-berries frozen, and outer shells 

 of walnuts, and chestnut-burrs, heaped or scattered 

 among the roots of the trees. The walnut-husks 

 mark the place where the boys, after nutting, sat 

 down to clear the walnuts of their outer shell. 



HAWTHORNE: American Note-Books. 



