BIRDS ftND NATURE. 



ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY. 



Vol. IX. FEBRUARY, 1901. No. 2 



FEBRUARY. 



Still lie the sheltering snows, undimmed and white; 



And reigns the winter's pregnant silence still; 



No sign of spring, save that the catkins fill, 



And willow stems grow daily red and bright. 



These are the days when ancients held a rite 



Of expiation for the old year's ill, 



And prayer to purify the new year's will; 



Fit days, ere yet the spring rains blur the sight, 



Ere yet the bounding blood grows hot with haste, 



And dreaming thoughts grow heavy with a greed 



The ardent summer's joy to have and taste; 



Fit days, to give to last year's losses heed, 



To reckon clear the new life's sterner need; 



Fit days, for Feast of Expiation placed! 



— Helen Hunt Jackson. 



FROST-WORK. 



These winter nights, against my window-pane 



Nature with busy pencil draws designs 



Of ferns and blossoms and fine spray of pines, 



Oak-leaf and acorn and fantastic vines, 



Which she will make when summer comes again — 



Quaint arabesques in argent, flat and cold, 



Like cur.ous Chinese etchings ... By and by, 



Walking my leafy garden as of old, 



These frosty fantasies shall charm my eye 



In azure, damask, emerald, and gold. 



— Thomas Bailey Aldrich. 



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