22 WINTER SUNSHINE. 



hard, smooth, sharp gritted roads that radiate from 

 the National Capital. Leading out of Washington 

 there are several good roads that invite the pedes- 

 trian. There is the road that leads west or north- 

 west from Georgetown, the Tenallytown road, the 

 very sight of which, on a sharp, lustrous winter Sun- 

 day, makes the feet tingle. Where it cuts through a 

 hill or high knoll, it is so red it fairly glows in the 

 sunlight. I'll warrant you will kindle, and your 

 own color will mount if you resign yourself to it. It 

 will conduct you to the wild and rocky scenery of 

 the upper Potomac, to Great Falls, and on to Har- 

 per's Ferry, if your courage holds out. Then there 

 is the road that leads north over Meridian Hill, 

 across Piny Branch, and on through the wood of 

 Crystal Springs, to Fort Stevens, and so into Mary- 

 land. This is the proper route for an excursion in 

 the spring to gather wild flowers, or in the fall for a 

 nutting expedition, as it lays open some noble woods 

 and a great variety of charming scenery ; or for a 

 musing moonlight saunter, say in December, when 

 the Enchantress has folded and folded the world in 

 iier web, it is by all means the course to take. Your 

 staff rings on the hard ground, the road, a misty white 

 belt,*gleams and vanishes before you, the woods are 

 cavernous and still, the fields lie in a lunar trance, 

 \nd you will yourself return fairly mesmerized by 

 the beauty of the scene. 



Or you can bend your steps eastward over the 

 Eastern Branch, up Good Hope Hill and on till you 



