OUR COUNTRY LIFE 



Now the chief pleasure in going to town is the very 

 early start one must make to catch the train. Those 

 early rides across the ice by the light of the rising sun, 

 the clean, crisp air in our faces, the musical bells 

 a-tinkle, the swift, smooth motion over the level track — - 

 almost I am reconciled to the city journey. Even from 

 the cars one may lose oneself in delighted contempla- 

 tion of the landscape; for through the pale light of a 

 fierce snowstorm, the undulating fields of stubble, the 

 misty marsh grasses with here and there a muskrat's 

 hummock, the clustered haystacks beside the silo towers, 

 the tiny villages and country roads, the long reaches of 

 prairie are all transfigured. 



Everywhere the trees show their real form; the fine 

 curving young willows, the knotted and twisted oaks, 

 the splendid sweep of the great elms, and the trim young 

 fruit trees in even rows sharply contrasting with their 

 older sisters farther on, who have developed each one 

 according to her own individual and picturesque fash- 

 ion. The slim Lombardy poplar looks like a visitor 

 among the lindens and the maples. Here and there a 



252 



