A SNOW-STORM 



it all upon their arms, and keep a circle of 

 bare ground beneath them where the birds 

 scratched. But the day following this fall, 

 they stood with their lower branches com- 

 pletely buried. If the Old Man of the 

 North had but sent us his couriers and 

 errand-boys before, the old graybeard ap- 

 peared himself at our doors on this occasion, 

 and we were all his subjects. His flag was 

 upon every tree and roof, his seal upon 

 every door and window, and his embargo 

 upon every path and highway. He slipped 

 down upon us, too, under the cover of such a 

 bright, seraphic day, — a day that disarmed 

 suspicion with all but the wise ones, a day 

 without a cloud or a film, a gentle breeze 

 from the west, a dry, bracing air, a blazing 

 sun that brought out the bare ground under 

 the lee of the fences and farm-buildings, 

 and at night a spotless moon near her full. 

 The next morning the sky reddened in the 

 east, then became gray, heavy, and silent. 

 A seamless cloud covered it. The smoke 

 from the chimneys went up with a barely 

 perceptible slant toward the north. In the 

 forenpon the cedar-birds, purple finches, 

 yellowbirds, nuthatches, bluebirds, were in 

 flocks or in couples and trios about the trees, 

 3 



