604 
RURAL HOURS. 
serves that their long slender lecaves are drawn closer together, 
giving a pinched look to the tufts, and the young twigs betray an 
inclination to droop. The hemlocks also lose something of their 
brilliancy. The balsams do not seem to feel the cold at all. 
Friday, 16th. — Very cold, clear day. Thermometer b° below 
zero this morning again. 
Looking abroad through the windows such weather as this, in 
a climate so decided as ours, one might almost be persuaded that 
grass, and foliage, and flowers are dreamy fancies of ours, which, 
like the jewel-bearing trees of fairy-land, have never had a posi- 
tive, real existence. You look in vain over the gardens, and lawns, 
and meadows, for any traces of the roses and violets Avhich de- 
lighted you last summer, and which you are beginning to long for 
again. But turn your eyes within doors, and here you shall find 
the most ample proofs that leaves and blossoms really grow upon 
this earth of ours ; here, within the walls of our dwellings, we 
need no green-house, or conservatory, or flower-stand to remind 
us of this fact. Here, winter as well as summer, we find traces 
enough of the existence of that beautiful part of the creation, the 
vegetation ; winter and summer, the most familiar objects with 
which we are surrounded, which hourly contribute to our conve- 
nience and comfort, bear the impress of the plants and flowers in 
their varied forms and colors. We seldom remember, indeed, 
how large a portion of our ideas of grace and beauty are derived 
from the plants, how constantly we turn to them for models. It 
is worth while to look about the first room you enter, to note how 
very many proofs of this you will find there. Scarcely an article 
of furniture, from the most simple and homely to the most ele- 
gant and elaborate, but carries about it some imitation of this kind. 
