32 SOME AUTUMN DAYS IN IOWA 
the sparrows. They congregate in flocks, nerv¬ 
ously darting hither and thither, chirping all the 
while as if they were oppressed with a sense of 
coming disaster. But the next day when the snow 
is falling heavily, these same birds will sit in the 
tree tops and make the merriest kind of music. 
The late Dr. Beardshear in one of his papers, 
speaks of wrapping himself in his great coat and 
lying down in a grove, allowing the feathery flakes 
to cover him while overhead the sparrows caroled 
merrily. It was Dr. Beardshear also who wrote: 
“I have put old Mother Nature to the severest test 
even in the coldest January night in Iowa by a 
leisurely stroll through the woods and down an 
old streamway for miles, with food of thought, 
suggestions of providence and blessings, yea, a 
warmful sympathy which made the fierce winter 
night a retreat of the most sacred thought and 
uplift.” 
Not many of us can reach heights like this. 
But everyone can break the miserable bondage of 
stuffy, superheated rooms and go for a long tramp 
through field and through woodland, enjoying the 
pure air and the glorious sunlight, sweetening his 
mind and enriching his soul. He can appreciate 
the sublime beauty of the lines of the Psalmist: 
“He giveth snow like wool; He scattereth the 
hoarfrost like ashes. 
