MARCH 



In this clear air and bright sunlight, the ice-cov- 

 ered trees have a new beauty, especially the birches 

 along under the edge of Warren's wood on each 

 side of the railroad, bent quite to the ground in 

 every kind of curve. At a distance, as you are 

 approaching them endwise, they look like the 

 white tents of Indians under the edge of the wood. 

 The birch is thus remarkable, perhaps, from the 

 feathery form of the tree, whose numerous small 

 branches sustain so great weight, bending it to the 

 ground ; and, moreover, because, from the color of 

 the bark, the core is less observable. 



THOREAU: Winter. 



Dry snow covered the ground. Along the stone 

 walls it had drifted heavily, reaching in many 

 places a depth of two feet. Walking in the 

 ploughed fields was uncertain, the furrows being 

 filled with snow and the ridges blown free from 

 it. The brooks were noisy, but their music was 

 muffled by decks of thin ice which partially cov- 

 ered them. Great white air bubbles rolled along 

 under these ice decks. Here and there watercress, 

 buttercup leaves and long blades of grass could 

 be seen pressed upward against the transparent ice 

 by the pulsating current. In one pool in the pine 

 woods the floor of the little basin was studded with 

 scarlet partridge berries, surrounded by their rich 

 green leaves. 



BOLLES: Land of the Lingering Snow. 



