DANVIS FARM LIFE 61 



duties. Bucksaw and axe are each day making 

 shorter the long pile of cordwood and greater the 

 pile of stovewood. 



The traditional "January thaw" comes and sets 

 all the brooks a-roaring and makes lakes of the 

 flat meadows, while the south wind blows with a 

 springlike softness and sighs itself asleep. The 

 sky clears and the north wind awakes and out- 

 roars the brooks till it locks them fast again and 

 turns the flooded meadows to glittering ice-fields 

 whereon the boys have jolly skating bouts in the 

 moonlit evenings. 



Many another snowfall comes, perhaps, but 

 every day the sunshine waxes warmer, and the 

 snow melts slowly off the roofs and becomes 

 "countersunk" about tree-trunks and mullein- 

 stalks. The tips of weather-beaten grass appear 

 above it and the great drifts grow dingy. It be- 

 comes pleasant to linger for a while in shirt-sleeves 

 on the sunny side of the barn, listening to the 

 steady drip of the icicled eaves and the cackling 

 of hens, and watching the cattle lazily scratching 

 themselves and chewing their cuds in the genial 

 warmth. 



The first crow comes, and now, if never again 

 in all the year, his harsh voice has a pleasant 

 sound. Roads grow " slumpy" and then so nearly 

 bare that people begin to ponder whether they 

 shall go forth on runners or wheels. 



