24 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



the miscellaneous sounds from wood, village, and farm. 

 During winter they enjoy a long holiday of freedom, 

 and show no sympathy with the desolate appearance of 

 nature. They hold a laughing revelry in the haunts of 

 the Dryad," who sits sad and disconsolate in her now 

 unsheltered retreats, where the leafless boughs scarcely 

 protect her from the shivering wind, or shade her from 

 the cold icy beams of the moon. 



At this time our ears are greeted by the sound of the 

 woodman's axe, that comes with multiplied reverbera- 

 tions through the solitude of the forest. Though one 

 of the most cheerful of all sounds, so far as it reminds 

 us of the presence of human beings in these solitary 

 places, yet it is sadly suggestive of the fall of venerable 

 woods, and of those changes in the face of nature which 

 we cannot witness without regret. With a more un- 

 mixed cheerfulness do we listen to the hammering of 

 the woodpecker upon some hollow tree in the wood, 

 and to the creaking of the dry branches which are partly 

 severed from the trunk of the tree, as they swing to and 

 fro in the wind. 



But when the sun gains a few more degrees in his 

 meridian height, and the snow begins to disappear 

 under the fervor of his beams, then do the sounds from 

 the dropping eaves, and the clash of falling icicles from 

 the boughs of the orchard trees, afford a pleasant sensa- 

 tion of the grateful change, which has already com- 

 menced ; and the utterance of these vernal promises 

 suddenly awakens all the delightful anticipation of birds 

 and flowers. The moaning of the winds has been 

 plainly softened by the changes of the season, and the 



* The Dryad, in moderrt mythology, i« the fanciful impersonation 

 of all animal life in the woods. 



