LEAF AND BRANCIL 
263 
And in March how strong the bare forest 
breaks across the horizon, how clear and sharp 
the dark ranks along the hill-top cut the sky ! 
The iron-like trunks show a variety of darks, 
though to the casual observer they are all of 
one tone; the twigs that bunch together broom- 
like along the top seem like a bordering fringe ; 
and the dull-green mass of the cedar, 
‘¢ That keeps his leaves in spite of any storm,” 
is merely a color-spot in the line. And how all 
this outlining of the woods in detail and in 
mass fits in and holds its place in the envelope 
of the landscape! Nature is stripped of its gay 
garments. It is showing more of structure 
than of color. The lines of shore and hill and 
mountain, of tree and field and rock, are every- 
where apparent. A cold light cements them 
all, and it is the ensemble—the unity of many 
in one—that makes such individual parts as 
the bare boughs and branches appropriate and 
beautiful. We may prefer certain months, 
lights, skies, hues; but the cold sky and light 
of March belong with the leafless earth and 
harmonize with it just as completely as the red 
foliage of September with the yellow-flushed 
sky of Indian summer. 
In March, 
The March, 
harmony. 
