CROSS-CUT VIEWS OF WINTER. 243 



many keen eyes peering, and so many tools, made 

 with such nicety, continually at work picking, 

 prying, boring, chiseling and probing at these bark- 

 covered warehouses- 



Thoreau says, "When you have weathered 

 January, you get into the Gulf Stream of winter 

 and nearer the shores of Spring." The old re- 

 volver hastens now to turn her cheek more directly 

 toward the round winter fire, far off in the south- 

 ern skies. It is on such days we contemplate it 

 with awe and reverence, as did those worshipers 

 iig. the olden time. Thou Sun, father of all that 

 live, say we, that distributes to us the seasons, that 

 supports and sustains us, and swings us around 

 in space as with thy thumb and finger, do not sever 

 the cord that binds us to thee, but in thine own 

 good time send thy rays, in turn to shine directly 

 on this zone, that it may again be clothed with a 

 vesture of green, and yield us abundant harvests ! 



In Feburary many spring-hke days are thrown 

 down to us. The chains of stern King Frost are 

 unbound, and the ice and snow transformed, run 

 singing toward their home. The streams are like 

 pennants of changeable silk, trembling with shin- 

 ing lustre. Looking along their length, from the 

 sun, where the water runs over shallows, the dark 



