16 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



these active birds with a hardihood almost miraculous, 

 to endure the severity of winter, that they might al- 

 ways remain to cheer the loneliness of these wintry 

 solitudes. For no clime or season has nature omitted 

 to provide blessings for those who are willing to receive 

 them, and in winter wheresoever we turn, we find a 

 thousand pleasant recompenses for our privations. ' The 

 Naiad still sits by her fountain, at the foot of the val- 

 ley, distributing her favors to the husbandman and his 

 flocks ; and the echoes still repeat their voices from the 

 summits of the hills, and send them over the plains,, 

 with multiplied reverberations, to cheer the hearts of all 

 living creatures. 



