A WINTER StfNSHINE 



Lest my winter sunshine appear to have too 

 many dark rays in it, — buzzards, crows, and colored 

 men, — I hasten to add the brown and neutral tints, 

 and may be a red ray can be extracted from some 

 of these hard, smooth, sharp-gritted roads that radi- 

 ate from the National Capital. Leading out of 

 Washington there are several good roads that invite 

 the pedestrian. There is the road that leads west 

 or northwest from Georgetown, the Tenallytown 

 road, the very sight of which, on a sharp, lustrous 

 winter Sunday, makes the feet tingle. Where it 

 cuts through a hill or high knoll, it is so red it 

 fairly glows in the sunlight. I '11 warrant you will 

 kindle, and your own color will mount, if you resign 

 yourself to it. It will conduct you to the wild and 

 rocky scenery of the upper Potomac, to Great Falls, 

 and on to Harper's Ferry, if your courage holds 

 out. Then there is the road that leads north over 

 Meridian Hill, across Piny Branch, and on through 

 the wood of Crystal Springs to Fort Stevens, and 

 so into Maryland. This is the proper route for an 

 excursion in the spring to gather wild flowers, or in 

 the fall for a nutting expedition, as it lays open 

 some noble woods and a great variety of charming 

 scenery ; or for a musing moonlight saunter, say in 

 December, when the Enchantress has folded and 

 folded the world in her web, it is by all means the 

 course to take. Your staff rings on the hard 

 ground; the road, a misty white belt, gleams and 

 vanishes before you; the woods are cavernous and 

 etill; the fields lie in a lunar trance, and you wUl 



