FEBRUARY 



17 



I find that it is an excellent walk for variety and 

 novelty and wildness to keep round the edge of the 

 meadow. The ice not being strong enough to 

 bear, and transparent as water, on the bare ground 

 or snow just between the highest water mark and 

 the present water line is a narrow, meandering 

 walk rich in unexpected views and objects. The 

 line of rubbish which marks the higher tides, with- 

 ered flags and seeds and twigs and cranberries, is 

 to my eyes a very agreeable and significant line 

 which nature traces along the edge of the mea- 

 dows. 



THOREAU: Winter. 



18 



Presently a fox barks away up next the moun- 

 tain, and I imagine I can almost see him sitting 

 there, in his furs, upon the illuminated surface, 

 and looking down in my direction. As I listen, 

 one answers him from behind the woods in the 

 valley. What a wild winter sound, wild and weird, 

 up among the ghostly hills ! Since the wolf has 

 ceased to howl upon these mountains, and the 

 panther to scream, there is nothing to be compared 

 with it. So wild 1 I get up in the middle of the 

 night to hear it. It is refreshing to the ear, and 

 one delights to know that such wild creatures are 

 among us. 



BURROUGHS: Winter Sunshine. 



