310 December Peace 



decay seem at an equipoise, and almost at rest. 

 Very soon after the New Year, the increased bright- 

 ness about four o'clock on some clear afternoon 

 makes it suddenly unmistakable that the year has 

 turned in its path, and has its face set again towards 

 summer. When once the afternoons begin to 

 lighten, the sense of midwinter rest is gone ; new 

 life and purpose are astir in nature, and before the 

 end of January the sharp spring call of the great tit- 

 mouse warns the woodlands that the time of dark- 

 ness is gone. But up to Christmastime, although 

 there is already a gain of a minute or two in the 

 afternoons since the middle of the month, the 

 increase is too slight to make itself felt, and rest 

 still broods upon them. Under the stillness of the 

 tree-boughs interlacing their varied lines, the brief 

 day fades forth without a struggle, seeming a mere 

 gleam " between a sleep and a sleep." " The days 

 do just open and shut," as an old cottage woman 

 once said. Yet in the darkness of the woodlands 

 there is no sense of oppression or gloom, where the 

 year's long path is ending. While good- will holds 

 sway at Christmastime round human hearths, no 

 less surely over the world of nature without there 

 dwells the spirit of peace. 



Printtd in Great Britain by Bcuell, Walton A Vinty, Ld., 

 London and Ayleibury. 



