FOLLOWING 4 Jk 
THE D£izR^\ 
How wonderful it all was! The 
great woods were covered deep with 
their pure white mantle ; not a fleck, 
not a track soiled its even whiteness ; 
for the last soft flakes were lingering 
in the air, and fox and grouse and 
hare and lucivee were still keeping 
the storm-truce, hidden deep in their 
coverts. Every fir and spruce and 
hemlock had gone to building fairy 
grottoes as the snow packed their 
lower branches, under which all sorts 
of wonders and beauties might be 
hidden, to say nothing of the wild 
things for whom Nature had been 
building innumerable tents of white 
and green as they slept. The silence 
was absolute, the forest's uncon- 
117 
WINTER TRAIL 
