CHAPTER VII 



A CHAPTER OF THINGS TO DO THIS WINTER 



I 



YOU should go skating crawling, I ought to 

 say over a pond of glare ice this winter. 

 Take the pond you are most familiar with. 

 Go early on a bright day, before any skater arrives, 

 and lying flat upon the clear, " black " ice, study the 

 bottom of the pond and the fish that swim below 

 you. They have boats with glass bottoms along the 

 California coast, through which to watch the mar- 

 velous bottoms off shore. But an Eastern pond 

 covered with glare ice is as good, for such ice is a 

 plate-glass window into a wonder world. 



II 



Fight your way one of these winter days to 

 the crest of some high hill and stand up against a 

 northwest gale. Feel the sweep of the winds from 

 across the plain beneath you; hear them speaking 

 close in your ear, as they fly past ; catch them and 

 breathe them, until they run red in your leaping 

 veins. Master them, and make them, mighty as they 

 are, your own. And something large and free, strong 

 and sound will pass into you ; and you will love the 



