1 6 IN WINTER. 



During the night the cold wave came. As I 

 write, we are having the first ice-making weather 

 of the season, although February is well advanced. 

 The chill, gray clouds scarcely concealed the sun 

 as it rose, and later, when the sky was clear, a 

 rosy blush tinted the drifted snow upon the fields. 

 What now of the busy birds, the spiders, and 

 humming flies of yesterday ? Have they folded 

 their tents like Arabs and silently disappeared ? 



Facing the north wind, I pushed through 

 brake and brier, listening at every step for the 

 chirp of a startled bird. For some time I neither 

 saw nor heard a living creature, nor, indeed, did I 

 wonder at their absence. At last a solitary crow 

 struggled against the fierce wind and uttered at 

 times a most melancholy plaint. It was all but 

 sufficient to send me home, and I stood for a 

 moment pitifully undecided ; but the crow, I 

 saw, did make some headway, and I took a hint of 

 it. The icy gusts that swept the hillside soon 

 forced me, however, to seek shelter, and I crept 

 for some distance along the bed of a deep dry ditch 

 overhung by blackberry canes and smilax. Here 

 I found a more spring-like temperature, and was 

 not surprised when from the clusters of dead 

 grass blue jays hopped before me. They were 

 evidently startled at my appearance in their snug 

 retreat, but still were not timid, as when in the 

 open woods. I often approached within a few 



