Litchfield enquirer., 1848-03-16
IIlSCGLu,AMY.
From the .AonparieI.
FOOTPRINTS i'm the Snow,
BY MISS MARTHA RUSSELL.

Earth. The sky had still agrayi>h, leaden
hue, and occasionally the air was darkened
| by shower Of fakes, as if those sa me
merry spirits were pelting each other with
snow balls, after their task was done, like
mischievous school boys-or, perchance,
they were scattered by loving hands to leep>
en- the stainless covering that folds the buds
of Springs earliest darlings-the blue>eyed
violets.
While the fire burns brightly in the old
alias! the power of early habit. That
old Fireplace is dark aud dreary as the
heart of the first Inventor of stoves In the
good old days men were wost to swear by
their homes and their hear,h-sloncs. But
ours are no more!
What wonder that patriotism has be-
come degraded to the ulterance of mere
party ShibboIeth's. Who feels his blood
kindle at the thought of danger to his 'Ar-
tight Cylinder or any other Of the tribe.
for for their name is Legion?' Who would
die in defence of hardware! VI
VIVA! wonder that religion grows cold
and formal when our household Iares are
de,hroned, and their places usurped by
shapeless, uncou,h masses Of iron, ugly
enough to represent the whole autobiography
of the Boodhist.
Think you that he who walked this
earth in his singing garments, " among US,
but not of us"-lhe etherial-minded. Shel>
ley-had the remoteSt reference 10 stoves,
when he exclaimed,
I" Men scarcely know how beautiful fire is
Each fame Of it is precious stone ..
Dissolved in every moving light, and this rs.
Belongs to each and all who gaze upon"
Iopine not, for in these days its moving
light" belongs to no one. Having uttered
our protest against the" darkness visible"
that has extinguished the once cheerful
light On our hearthstones, let US turn 10
the window, and watch the changes in the
world without. Jack Frosl's daguerrean
sketches on the windOw>Panes are fading
away, and we can get a clearer view than
before.
The snow lies deep and unbroken-stain-
less as a maiden's truth ere the teachings
of the world have sullied it. The trunks
and branches of the trees, on the northern
side, are covered with coating OF snow.
They show cold shoulder to the north
wind, as he comes whistling among them,
whirling The snow in deep eddies around
their rools-then away he goes down by the
river, waltzlng with the little alders-or
pauses on the bleak hillside, to dance
polka with yon maidenly sweet>briar, crow
ned with her chaplct of scarlet berries.
Look AZ yon range of snow drifts! Arr
chitraves, mouldings, cornices. arches, ana
capitals-Corinthian, lonian, Doric, and
Gothic-all are more or less distinctly reps
resented. We go to Eurgpe, and gaze with
hushed reverence on the manifestations OF
that imperishable genius that made ancient
Greece one vast temple Of Beauty-we talk
astically, and perhaps learLedly, Of
her temples, and return home only to hnd
germs and archetypes of all those wonders
folded beneath the wintry>sky of bleak New
England.
Then comes the first footprints in our
| street. A man wrapped in overcoat and
comforter, tolls along, stepping high and
wide. What ridiculous gate that would
be for day in July. Nov he reaches the
corner, and steps. A deep diff barricades
the way, from behind which old Boreas
sends whole shower o. snow in his face
and eyes, and impudeutly whisks off his
hat for football. He! he has 1t again
His yankee blood is stirred, and graspins
the Trim with both hands, he makes, a dive
and disappears round the corner.
! Here Genes another. See how exactly he
steps in the tracks OF his predecessor. Hal
the first pedestrian possessed the stride OIL
the Colossus at Rhodes" every man tina
came after would have attempted to step ia
his footprints. Any one who has paid thu
slightest attention to the manners and hab'
its Of our New EnSland population, coult
not have failed TO note this propensity o
the gentlemen 70 track each other in tn
snow, while, ON the o.her hand, the women
If they have occasion to go ont before ,h'
paths age beaten, as invariably choose theil
own pa,hs-or, as little friend Of MINI
said whea told 10 step in the tracks OF thu
older children, "ihey prefer making 'hei
own track" ra-.s @1@ o.
Here comes farmer Il with sle'
load Of school children. How cheerii!
their voices sound One lille fellow stand
up and holds on to stake with laughabl
assumption Of manly indifference. He feel
atleast, dozen years older than his play
mates. who sits by his sisters side, an