HOUSE AND GARDEN 
92 
February, 
I9 J 3 
What automobile trip can compare with the jolted progress through the 
snow-filled valleys in an ox-drawn sled 
with her eyes stood silent for an instant, then quoted: 
“ ‘ — Or the redbreast sit and sing, 
Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch 
Of mossy apple tree.’ ” 
Feeling that the psychological moment had come, I quoted in 
turn,— 
‘‘Shall — ‘we leave the town with its hundred noises. 
For woodland quiet and silvery voices?’ ” 
As no reply was forthcoming to this I continued coaxingly, 
“Won’t you brave the winter with me?” 
I don’t know to this hour what the decision would have 
been had the lady been left to herself, but a bunch of 
cheery chickadees, scattering the snow from the twigs of 
a nearby sapling as they hopped about, chipped in with 
their merry “Chick-a-dee-dee-dee-dee!’’ 
Then my hand was taken as I listened to words that 
came from laughing lips, though in trembling tones: 
“ ‘Then come the wild weather, come sleet and come snow, 
We’ll stand by each other however it blow.’ ” 
And thus began our winter in the Happy Valley. The 
first snow melted in forty-eight hours, to the heightened 
brawling of the mountain brooks and the increased roar 
of the cascades about us, and the Indian summer days 
came back, when again we wandered afield with knap¬ 
sacks on our backs to visit our favorite butternut, hickory 
and chestnut trees. The gray squirrels knew that we car¬ 
ried no guns and barked at Us fearlessly, while the reds 
chuckled and trilled in their funny fashion from over our 
heads as theycrobbed our trees: -As the mornings became 
colder andToe%began to show on the borders of the streams, 
our walks* became brisker and we' 'climbed the nearby 
heights 'from which we looked upon the tops of snow- 
crowned mountains, some of them forty miles away. On 
the warmer days' We /wandered, “slowly and silently near 
the stream - , watching 'for tlie mink that often appeared, 
and once we were* rewarded by the sight of an otter which 
displayed himself for a full minute while we held our 
breath. Sometimes we took after-dark walks, which were 
never lacking in thrill, for the mountains have voices and 
there are always sounds in the forest. A heavy step in 
the thicket on the hillside near you may be any wild 
creature your imagination fancies. 
It was a month after our untimely snow when there 
came a rain followed by a freezing night which made the 
face of the forest a mass of sunlight-reflected jewels. All 
nature was coated with the purest ice, from the rough crag 
to the tinest twig, and as the branches swayed slightly in the 
gentle breeze the colors of the spectrum flashed from a million 
points and sparkling tiaras met the eye wherever it turned. As 
the breeze increased the air was filled with a tinkling sound and 
from the lighter twigs streams of scintilating particles poured 
down upon a field of ice. As we looked the girl at my side in a 
low tone quoted: 
“ ‘Look ! the mossy trunks, 
Are cased in the pure crystal; each light spray, 
Nodding and tinkling in the breath of heaven, 
Is studded with its trembling water drops.’ ” 
“Wasn't it worth while staying in the mountains just for this?” 
I asked. 
“It is worth everything!” she exclaimed, “and I am going to 
write to the girls to come right up here.” 
A few days later I received the following: 
"Dear L T ncle Archie: 
Aunt Lucy is a peach and a darling and so are you. Of course 
we will be with you for the holidays, Marian and I. and I hope 
to goodness it will snow so hard that we can’t get away until 
spring. Please see that the snowshoes are properly greased for 
Marian, if that’s what ought to be done, and have the skis 
sharpened for me, if that’s what happens to them. Don’t send to 
the station for us. It’s only twelve miles and we will walk in. 
We did a hike of ten miles last summer and we can do two more, 
easy. Then we will show you how to eat supper. 
“Your loving niece, Madge.” 
All kinds of gruesome monsters appear among the rocks where snow and 
shadow form strange profiles and distorted faces 
