MARCH DAYS 



north, followed by an angry gust, and 

 then a howling wintry blast that the 

 crows stagger against in labored flight as 

 they make for the shelter of the woods. 



You, too, toil to shelter and fireside 

 warmth, and are thankful to be out of the 

 biting wind and the treacherous footing. 

 The change has come so suddenly that 

 the moist, grainy snow is frozen before it 

 has time to leach, and in a little while 

 gives you a surface most delightful to 

 walk upon, and shortens distances to half 

 what they were. It has lost its first pure 

 whiteness wherewith no other whiteness 

 can compare, but it is yet beyond all 

 things else, and in the sunlight dazzles 

 you with a broad glare and innumerable 

 scintillating points of light, as intense as 

 the sun itself. 



The sunshine, the bracing air, the 

 swaying boughs of the pines and hem- 

 locks beckoning at the woodside, and the 

 firm smooth footing, irresistibly invite 

 you forth. Your feet devour the way 

 with crisp bites, and you think that no- 

 thing could be more pleasant to them till 

 you are offered a few yards of turf, laid 

 bare by winds and sun, and then you real- 

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