The Harrison times. (Harrison, Boone Co., Ark) 1876-1938, 1884-10-18
A Good Word for Winter.

On the WnOle, ii one WOulu know
what snow is, | should advise him
not to hunt up what the poets have
said about it, but to look at the
sweet miracle itself. In the Psalm.
lists tender phrase, He giveth his
snow like WOOL
The preludings of Winter are as
beautiful as those of Spring. In a
gray December day, when, as the
farmers say, it is too cold to snow,
his numbed fingers will let fall
doubtfuly a few star shaped flakes,
the snow. drops and anemonles that
harblnger his more assured reign.
Now, and now only, may be seen,
heaped on the horizons eastern
edge, those blue clouds from forth
which Shakeapear says that Mars
doth pluck the masoned turrets,'
Sometimes also, when the sun is
low, you will see a single cloud
trailing furry of snow along the
southern hills in q wagering fringe
of purple. And when at last the
real snow-storm comes, it leaves
the earth with a Yirglhal look on it
that no other of the seasons can ri
val-compared with which, indeed,
they seem soiled and vulgar. AND
what is there IN nature 30 beautiful
as the next morning after such con.
fusion of the elementsY Night has
no silence hike this Of busy day.
A the batteries OF noise are EpIk-
ed. We see the movements of life
as deaf man sees il, a mere wrath
OF the cIamOrous existence that in
inAlcts itself on our ears when the
ground is bare. The earth is cloth.
ed in innocence as a garment. Ev-
cry wound of The landscape IS heal.
ed; what was unsightly has been
covered gently with soft spIendor.
az If, Cowley would have said, Ma.
ture had cleverly let fall her hand
kcrchiel to hide it.
Poets have iancied the footprints
of the wind in those light rIpplos
that sometimes Bcurry across the
smooth water with sudden blur
But on this cleaning hush the @ria
deluge has left plain marks of its
course; and in gulies through which
it rushed torrent-like, the eye finds
its bed irregularly scooped like that
of a brook in bard beach-sand, or
in more sheltered spots, traced
with outlines like those left by the
sliding edges of the surf upon the
shore. The air, after all, is only IN
infinitely thinner kind of water
Nor is the wind the only thing
whose trail you will notice on this
sensitive surface. You will find
that you have more neighbors and
night visitors than you dreamed OF.
Here is the dainty footprint Of a
cat; here dog has looked in on you
like an amateur Waterman to see il
all is right, slumpjng clumsily about
in the mealy treachery. And look!
before you were up in the morning,
though you were apunctual courlior
vt the suns leyee, hero has been q
squirrel Engaging to and fro like u
bound gathering the scent, and
some tiny bird searching for unim-
aglnable tood-perhaps for tho ii.
nier creature, whatever it il, that
drew this slender continuous trail
like those made on the west beach
by light boarders of tho sea.
The snow that falls damp comes
commonly in larger flakes from
MINDLESS skies, and is the prottiost
of all to watch from under cover.
This sort of snowfall has no fgh. II
it, and docs not challenge you to q
wrestle. But would exchange this
and give something to boot, Tor The
privilege of walking out INTO the
vast blur of north northeast snow
storm, md getting strong draughu
on the furnace within, by drawing
the first burrows through its sandy