2l8 
INSPIRED BY THE SNOW 
as joy in his lithe, bounding motions among the 
naked trees, for nature seems to have done her 
utmost to provide a setting that would best display 
his graces of form and motion* 
When the falling snow clings in light, airy masses 
on the Spruces and Pines, and festoons the naked 
tracery and clustering winter buds of the Maples — 
when the still air seems to fix every twig and branch 
and clinging mass of snow in a solid medium of 
crystal, the spell of stillness is broken by the silent 
but joyful leaps of the hurrying Squirrel* How alive 
he seems, in contrast with the silence of the snow, as 
his outlines make changing silhouettes on its perfect 
white I His body curves and elongates with regular 
undulations as he measures off the snow with twin 
footprints* Away in the distance he is still visible 
among the naked trunks, a moving patch of animated 
blackness* His free regular footprints are all about, 
showing where he has run hither and thither, with 
no apparent purpose except to manifest his joy in life* 
His red-haired cousin comes to a lofty opening in a 
hollow tree and looks out with an expression of dis- 
appointment on his face* He does not like the snow- 
covered landscape spread out so artistically before 
him* It makes him tired, and he has not enough 
energy to scold an intruder, as he would in the 
comfortable days of summer* No amount of coaxing 
or tapping will tempt him from his lofty watch-tower. 
