100 GREEN TRAILS AND UPLAND PASTURES 



our own farms and gardens, indeed, we may see the same 

 thing occurring, and often beneath a weed top find on 

 light snow the dust of seed shells and innumerable tiny 

 tracks. There is nothing more beautiful than the weed 

 tops above a deep snow by country roadside or forest 

 edge. Consider a group of wild-carrot tops (Queen Anne's 

 lace) dried and turned up into fretted cups to hold each 

 its thimbleful of snow, or a clump of withered golden-rod 

 blooms, as perfect in shape as they were when the frost 

 struck them down, but a brownish gray now instead of 

 gold. Above all, look for the pods of the milkweed, 

 three or more on a single tall stalk, a lovely yellowish 

 brown inside, a delicate mouse-gray on the tongue, 

 which curls over like the hood of a Jack-in-the-pulpit! 

 The milkweed pods, above the deep snows of Winter, 

 with the full sun upon them, are like petrified orchids. 

 Grass tops are lovely, too, rising through the dazzle, and 

 cattails in the swamp, and many a more humble weed. 

 And every one that bears seeds is harvest for the birds 

 and mice, as well as the most delicate of etchings a few 

 gracefully stiff lines, a puff of withered bloom against 

 the dazzling ground plate of snow. The birds are not 

 the only creatures which benefit by the weeds. Tiny 

 footmarks, with the line of the tail between, make roads 

 amid all the weeds of our pasture after Winter has come. 

 We may call it an abandoned clearing, but it was busy 

 enough last night! 



Richer food than the weeds, however, is provided 



