464 
RURAL HOURS. 
tlieir sleds drawn by gallant skaters. Altogether, it was a gay, 
cheerful scene. 
The view of the village was very pleasing, the buildings show- 
ing against a bright sunset sky. They are cutting, or rather 
sawing ice, to supply the village next summer ; the blocks are 
about ten inches thick. It is said that from eighteen to twenty 
inches is the greatest thickness of the ice observed here. 
Wednesday, 24:th. — Very mild — thawing — the snow going rap- 
idly. The hills are getting brown and bare again, and the coarse 
stubble of the maize-fields shows plainly through the snow. Saw 
a winged insect by the road-side, a very rare sight indeed in our 
winters. I do not know what kind it was. 
Met a number of teams drawing pine logs to the saw-mill. The 
river runs dark and gray ; it never freezes near the village ; the 
current, though not very swift, seems sufficient to prevent the ice 
from covering the stream. Ice often forms along the banks, but 
it is soon broken and carried away, and we have never seen it 
stretch across the river. Very pleasant it is, in the midst of a 
scene so still and wintry, to watch the running, living waters glid- 
ing along with a murmur as low and gentle as in June. 
Thursday, 25 th. — Rainy day. High south wind. The locust 
pods are scattered about the lawn on the dregs of the snow, yet 
the number on the trees seems scarcely diminished. 
They are cutting ice ; the sleds and men moving about in the 
water which lies above the ice, look oddly enough ; and, like the 
swan of St. Mary's, they move double also — sleds, men, and oxen 
reflected as clear as life. 
Friday, 26th. — Beautiful morning ; charming sunrise, warm 
clouds in a soft sky. The lake rosy with reflections. 
