72 
AN ICE STORM. 
The month of i is aang: eas and this 
year it has been a tion, having been according to 
the weather records the coldest for thirty years, the average 
temperature for the month being only 35°. n the 1oth, the 
anniversary of the blizzard of 1888, the cea in the 
herbaceous grounds recorded only two 0 degrees above zero, and 
day, and the minimum temperature even the s d i 
April was 21.5 there hav en warm, quiet days and 
abundant signs of g he hylas were peeping and the 
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snow-drops were blooming in the nurseries on the roth, and 
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sap of the sugar-maples flowing from broken twigs, had made 
icicles several inches long during the night, and a few venoure- 
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con inches of snow on the level, and changing to sleet during 
the night. The next morning dawned clear and cold, the sky 
was blue and cloudless and every common thing stood trans- 
formed to faeces tinkling with icicles and hung in prismatic 
rainbow: rive in the gardens was a glimpse into fairyland. 
On every side were wondrous pictures, and each familiar spot 
d the roses in the crimson of their twigs. Each tree and shrub 
had been decked in the same manner and yet how different they 
were. Not even inthe beauty oftheir autumn foliage are they so 
the blue sky, while the drooping clusters of catkins of the birches 
