WINTER SUNSHINE. 



21 



brethren, plenty of them, of conscientious and well- 

 directed effort and industry in the worthiest fields, in 

 agriculture, in trade, in the mechanic arts, that show 

 the colored man has in him all the best rudiments of 

 a citizen of the States. 



Lest my winter sunshine appear to have too many 

 dark rays in it, buzzards, crows, and colored men, I 

 hasten to add the brown and neutral tints, and may be 

 a red ray can be extracted from some of these hard, 

 smooth, sharp gritted roads that radiate from the 

 National Capital. Leading out of Washington there 

 are several good roads that invite the pedestrian. 

 There is the road that leads west or northwest from 

 Georgetown, the Tenallytown road, the very sight 

 of which, on a sharp, lustrous winter Sunday, makes 

 the feet tingle. Where it cuts through a hill or high 

 knoll, it is so red it fairly glows in the sunlight. I'll 

 warrant you will kindle, and your own color will mount 

 if you resign yourself to it. It will conduct you to the 

 wild and rocky scenery of the upper Potomac, to Great 

 Falls, and on to Harper's Ferry, if your courage holds 

 out. Then there is the road that leads north over 

 Meridian Hill, across Piny Branch, and on through the 

 wood of Crystal Springs, to Fort Stevens, and so into 

 Maryland. This is the proper route for an excur- 

 sion in the spring to gather wild flowers, or in the fall 

 for a nutting expedition, as it lays open some noble 

 woods and a great variety of charming scenery ; or for 

 a musing moonlight saunter, say in December, when 



