Bethel, Maine.
1912.
January 3
[January 3, 1912]

  Clear, cold and absolutely calm. Ther. [thermometer] -3 [degrees] at daybreak +30 at 1 P.M.
  I came to Bethel yesterday to spend two days at the Gehrings'.
When, about ten o'clock this morning, the Doctor and I started
for a walk the thermometer stood at 18 [degrees] but the air was so
dry and still that it did not seem cold or even chilly although
we wore no overcoats nor any covering for hands or ears. The
fields to the south of the house were buried under about
six inches of ice-encrusted snow very dazzling to the eyes
where the rays of the low sun struck across it. Even in
this exposed place there was not a breath of wind. In the
woods, which we entered by the familiar Glen Wood trail, the
snow lay seven or eight inches deep and was for the most
part soft and powdery. The branches of the pines and spruces
were loaded with it wherever the wind had failed to penetrate.
The openings among the trees were bathed in bright warm sunlight
which illuminated even the depths of evergreen groves and thickets