FEBRUARY 



25 



We pause and gaze into the Mill brook on the 

 Turnpike bridge. I see a good deal of cress there 

 on the bottom for a rod or two, the only green 

 thing to be seen. ... Is not this the plant which 

 most, or most conspicuously, preserves its green- 

 ness in the winter ? ... It is as green as ever, and 

 waving in the stream as in summer. 



THOEEAU: Winter. 



A chickadee, with its winter lisp, flits over. I 

 think it is time to hear its phoebe note, and that 

 instant it pipes it forth. 



THOKEAU: Early Spring in Massachusetts. 



26 



Now look down from your hillside across the 

 valley. The trees are leafless, but this is the season, 

 to study their anatomy, and did you ever notice be- 

 fore how much color there is in the twigs of many 

 of them ? 



LOWELL: A Good Word for Winter. 



This afternoon, as probably yesterday, it being 

 warm and thawing, though fair, the snow is cov- 

 ered with snow fleas. Especially they are sprinkled 

 like pepper for half a mile in the tracks of a wood- 

 chopper in deep snow. With the first thawing 

 weather they come. 



THOREAU: Winter. 



