DECEMBER 



I AM aware that the civil calendar dates the 

 opening of spring from the time when the 

 sun passes the ascending node at the vernal 

 equinox in March ; but, by a pleasant, if somewhat 

 arbitrary habit, I am able to amplify that delightful 

 period to a degree equal to its whole duration by 

 reckoning its commencement from the time of the 

 winter solstice. It is at that time that the sun is 

 sunk, as it were, in the pit of the south ; and I am 

 conscious that for a week or so it is ploughing its 

 way through the wintry deeps upon a curve so 

 shallow that as yet it gives no sign of reascent. 

 But after that comes the light, first harbinger of the 

 re-opening year ; the heat may follow in its season ; 

 but spring, for me, has begun with the lengthening 

 day. Nature has turned in her sleep ; she will 

 soon awake. 



I know that this is all very sad reasoning in 

 these enlightened days ; but " Denmark's a prison," 

 if only one thinks so. 



If I am put to it, I will point, in support of my 

 theory, to miles of country with the green wheat 



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