FEBRUARY 



Lamb, Shepherd and Fox The Mill Wheel Turns Sigpals 

 of Spring Kindly Snow The Bridge of Winter A Golden- 

 crested Wren Dyke and Dell-hole 



I. 



u never know what shapes snow will assume 

 | in answer to wind and contour. The covering of 

 whole field will blow into a crumpled heap in 

 some roadway or dell-hole or dip. The flakes have 

 travelled often a long way, as spindrift, and the flat fields 

 exposed to the wind are no more than sprinkled. They 

 look as if they had been scraped or harrowed, so that 

 their surface-crevices became filled and their knobs left 

 naked. So it was in the latest storm. The field path 

 gave good walking. Where there was some shelter 

 from the north the snow lay white and even in its 

 uncompacted lightness. In more open places the 

 ridges were almost bare, and only the furrows pure 

 white. One field looked like a bay of frozen waves, 

 for the alternated brightness and dullness absurdly 

 exaggerated the abruptness of the native ridge and 

 furrow. 



The first part of the walk was over fields, the second 

 part was meant to be along a little narrow country road ; 

 but the well-laid plan went quite agley. The road was 

 smooth enough under the lea of a wood, and the snow 

 patterned with tracks of both bird and beast, chiefly 

 pheasant and rabbit. Just beyond the wood it became 

 impassable with drifts of curious and beautiful pattern. 



58 



