14 



WINTER 



him abroad. Strange and fatal weakness ! He goes 

 and cannot stop. 



Along the stone 

 wall of the meadow 

 we tracked him, across 

 the highroad, over our 

 garden, into the or- 

 chard, up the woody 

 hill to the yard, back 

 down the hill to the 



orchard, out into the garden, 

 and back toward the orchard 

 again ; and here, on a knoll just 

 at the edge of the scanty, skele- 

 ton shadow where the sunlight 

 fell through the trees, we lost 

 him. 



Two mighty wings, we saw, 

 had touched the snow lightly 

 here, and the lumbering trail 

 had vanished as into the air. 



Close and mysterious the 

 shadowy silent wings hang poised indoors and out. 

 Laughter and tears are companions. Life begins, but 

 death sometimes ends the trail. Yet the sum of life, 

 outdoors and in, is peace, gladness, and fulfillment. 



