THE JOY OF WINTER 29 
not aching in the cold but rollicking in it and 
with it, is a lesson in enduring hardness. Com- 
plaints ought at this season to freeze on the lips. 
Let sleigh bells jingle; let the wolf lope across the 
sullen fields of snowy nights; let the recluse owl 
hoot as he goes about like a surly housewife get- 
ting supper ready; let the icy branches crack in 
the frosty air like riflemen at practice; let the 
bittersweet berries hang like garnets coated 
with frost; let the mobile river turn to stable 
shore where skaters may hold festival; let the 
cattle gather with their trustful eyes waiting for 
supper and the dark, making no complaint at 
anything for anybody. Watch the chickens as 
they set themselves to obeying the ten com- 
mandments for chickens—“Early to bed and 
early to rise”; see the mannish rooster bluster 
around among his silly brood of wives; hear the 
hens remark blithely, “I will lay an egg to- 
morrow”; hear at night the watch dog’s bark— 
faithfulness finding a voice; hear the boom of 
waves on the lake shore and the crash of ice. 
Acclimate your soul to winter and you will be 
inclined to draft resolutions of sympathy for 
all who have no winter season. 
And in winter the world looks so big. In sum- 
mer the green world makes no vivid denial of 
the blue sky, but an ermine world has distinct 
controversy with the sapphire sky with the 
result that the world stretches very, very far. 
It seems not the same world as in summer. 
