JANUARY. 7 



her, who, instead of pleasures and pastimes, 

 know only wants and evils which dwarf both 

 body and soul. Where, perhaps, illness has 

 superadded its aggravations, its pains and lan- 

 guors, to a poverty which renders the comforts 

 and indulgences of a sick room the most hope- 

 less of all things. These are the speculations 

 to enhance our fireside pleasures, and to make 

 those pleasures fruitful ; linking our sympathies 

 to the joys and sorrows of our kind, and arous- 

 ing us to a course of active benevolence. 



To proceed, however, to the varieties of win- 

 try weather, this month more than all others 

 shows us 



The Continued Frost — A frost that, day 

 after day, and week after week, makes a steady 

 abode with us, till the beaten roads become 

 dusty as in summer. It every day penetrates 

 deeper into the earth, and farther into our 

 houses; almost verifying the common saying, 

 " January will freeze the pot upon the fire." 

 Our windows in the morning are covered with 

 a fine opaque frost-work, resembling the leaves 

 and branches of forest-trees, and the water is 

 frozen in the ewer. The small birds are hop- 

 ping, with half-erected feathers, upon our door- 

 sills, driven to seek relief from creation's tyrants 

 by the still more pressing tyranny of cold and 

 famine. The destruction of birds, and of all 



