EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
57 
now. You began at the butt of the pole to 
curve it, you gradually bent it round according 
to rule, and planted the other end in the ground, 
and already in imagination saw the vine curling 
round this segment of an arbor, under which a 
new generation was to recreate itself, but when 
you had done, it sprang back to its former stub¬ 
born and unhandsome position like a bit of 
whalebone. 
10 A. M. Up river on ice to Fairhaven Pond. 
. ... We have this morning the clear, cold, 
continent sky of January. The river is frozen 
solidly and T do not have to look out for open¬ 
ings. Now I can take that walk along the 
river highway and the meadow which leads me 
under the boughs of the maples and the swamp 
white oaks, etc., which in summer overhang the 
water. I can now stand at my ease and study 
their phenomena amid the sweet gale and but¬ 
ton bushes projecting above the snow and ice. 
I see the shore from the water side ; a liberal 
walk, so level, wide, and smooth, without un¬ 
derbrush. In some places where the ice is ex¬ 
posed I see a kind of crystallized chaffy snow 
like little bundles of asbestos on its surface. I 
seek some sunny nook on the south side of a 
wood which keeps off the cold wind, among the 
maples and the swamp white oaks, and there 
sit and anticipate the spring and hear the chick- 
