CHRISTMAS AND THE WINTER WORLD 295 



It is not long after Thankgsiving, in my mountain 

 home, that Winter comes upon us in full force. It may 

 have been that he sent cavalry scouts of snow before 

 Thanksgiving as early as November seventh they have 

 arrived, I recall but these have melted away before a 

 morning's bombardment of sun. In December, how- 

 ever, Winter brings up his main forces, and we wake 

 some morning to find the leaden sky milky in the north- 

 west and a strange expectancy of chill in the air. Pres- 

 ently, over the battlement of our guardian mountain, 

 comes the first puff of artillery, then the whole long 

 ridge is hidden in the smoke, and ten minutes later the 

 enemy is up and over, the storm has enveloped us, 

 Winter, the conqueror, is here! 



We wake the second morning into a world trans- 

 formed, a world of white dazzle, with every angular line 

 in the landscape softened into a curve by the snow, every 

 fir tree a lovely minaret, every vista carpeted with 

 crystal. "It is a Christmas-card world!" we say. 



A Christmas-card world! How can Winter be 

 cheerless when it reminds us of Christmas? Christmas, 

 the wise ones tell us, is only half a Christian festival 

 it represents in part a pagan survival, like Easter. 

 The thought, instead of being disconcerting to the 

 orthodox, should be pleasant, for the continuity of 

 man's spiritual nature is thus attested. Certainly, to 

 us northern peoples, the spirit of Christmas and the 

 spirit of Winter are inextricably knit. The strange 



