CHAPTER XTI 



A CHAPTER OF THINGS TO HEAR THIS WINTER 



I 



YOU should hear the three great silences of 

 winter : the wide, sudden silence that falls 

 at twilight on the coming of the first winter 

 frost ; the smothered hush that waits the breaking 

 of a winter storm ; the crystal stillness, the speech 

 of the stars, that pervades earth and sky on a bril- 

 liant, stirless winter night. You should hear or is 

 it feel? them all. 



II 



So should you hear the great voices of the winter : 

 the voice of the north wind ; the voice of a pine 

 forest; the voice of the surf on a stormy shore. 

 There is no music that I know like the wild mighty 

 music of the winter winds in the winter woods. It 

 will often happen that you can pass through a bare 

 stretch of naked hardwoods immediately into a grove 

 of thick-limbed spruces or pines. Never miss such 

 an opportunity. Do not let the high winds of this 

 winter blow on and away without your hearing them 

 at least once as they sweep through the hard- 

 woods on into the deep resounding pines. 



