14 
RURAL HOURS. 
Long walk of several miles on the lake. We fancied the waters 
impatient to be free : there was a constant succession of dull, 
rumbling, and groaning sounds beneath our feet, a;S we passed 
over the ice, so much so as to disturb our four-footed companion 
not a little. Dogs are often uneasy on the ice, especially when they 
first set out ; they do not like the noise from below ; but there 
was no danger whatever this morning. The crust is still eight or 
ten inches thick, and must have been much strengthened by the 
last severe weather. A number of sleighs and cutters were glid- 
ing about, several of the last driven by children, and well loaded 
with little people making the most of the last snow. 
It was thawing in the village, and the streets were muddy ; but 
on the lake the snow scarcely yielded at all, the ice making a 
climate of its own. We enjoyed the walk very much ; it is par- 
ticularly pleasant to wander about at will over so broad a field, 
confined to no track, and without an obstacle to arrest one's pro- 
gress, all which gives a freedom to these walks upon the lake, be- 
yond what we are accustomed to on terra firma, where roads, and 
fences, and bridges must be consulted at every turn. 
Monday, 20th. — Passing beneath some maples this afternoon, 
we observed several with small icicles hanging from their lower 
branches, although there was neither ice nor snoAV on the adjoin- 
ing trees ; we broke one off, and it proved to be congealed sap, 
which had exuded from the branch and frozen there during the 
night — natural sugar candy, as it were, growing on the tree. 
These little icicles were quite transparent and sweetish, like eau 
sucree. At this season, the sap very frequently moistens the 
trunk and limbs of sugar maples very plentifully, in spots where 
there is some crevice through which it makes its way ; one often 
