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 ! 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, 
