64 STUDIES IN THE FIELD AND FOREST. 



weather, its sunshine and gloom, its winds and calms, 

 of the vicissitudes of human life. On the present day, 

 the gales are wafting upon their wings, as the hopes of 

 youth are borne upon the fancy, all the gay promises of 

 spring ; to-morrow the cold blasts of winter are pouring 

 down from the frozen regions of the north, and all the 

 vernal hopes of yesterday are crowned with disappoint- 

 ment. Thus on one day of our lives, every circum- 

 stance seems to promise immediate happiness; the next 

 upon its arrival, brings nothing but the dismal evidence 

 of the deceitfulaess of those promises. Still in the 

 midst of all these vicissitudes of climate, there is always 

 a satisfactory assurance, that the alternations of cold 

 and heat, gloom and sunshine, will settle down at last 

 into the general calm of summer, which must, in the 

 course of nature, soon arrive. And thus while sur- 

 rounded by the adversities of life, that come upon us 

 like wintry storms in JMarch, when we are looking for 

 spring, there is always a hope existing in our minds, 

 that a tranquil and summer prosperity will erelong 

 take the 'place of our present troubles and calamities. 



