IX. 



CBOSS-CUT VIEWS OP "WTNTEB. 



WiNTEE, although it offers shorter commons to 

 the observing rambler than other seasons of the 

 year, nevertheless invests the fields and woods 

 with many peculiarly interesting phases of nature, 

 which he can ill afford to lose sight of. In spring, 

 summer or autumn, during his walks his imagina- 

 tion and memory are crowded with thousands of 

 wonderful sights and events in plant and insect 

 life; but now the page on which he was so en- 

 gaged is nearly sealed by the snow and ice, and so 

 he perforce must adjust a nicer pair of glasses, and 

 look sharply about him, in order to gratify the 

 desire to learn what this apparently blank white 

 cover may have written upon it. 



There are days when the earth is circumscribed 

 with blue and silver. The azure vault without a 

 cloud, and a wide stretch of pearly lustre below ; 

 a sprinkling comes before the cold, and with icy 



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