The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-02-07
ONE WINTER HOUR.

UNE WIN In IlOOh.
January go in the morning. The Their
mometer ranging not far from zero. and
with no breath of air stirring; the heavens
above as deep and blue as the sky OF June,
but with faint, vanishing frosty mist
lowering low over the face of earth; the
robe of finely-powdered snow lying upon all
things far and near, and flashing back from
a million facets the sunshine which pours
In one full golden food from the chambers
of the east. How the tonic air Quickens the
blood and touches to renewed health the
house-worn spirit People are abroad the
farmers are driving to town, one by one or
in little professions, the dry snow shriekihg
like a hurt thing beneath their heavy
crunching wheels. and tinkling sleighoeiis
sound fairly. From the creek comes the
soft swish of many saws, and the cneery
laughter and jests of the ice-cutters, now
busily gathering their crystal harvest
From the creek, too, floats the shouts OF
children, for score of boys and girls with
skates and sleds are holding carnival and
make a picture of moving life and color.
IT'S Saturday and not an hour OF so per-
feet a holiday to be lost. They are at IL
early and will be there late. What though
you can fairly taste the tang Of the sharp
ART only nips the sluggards and viii
never hurt these tireless types of energy
The ice-cutters are swathed in uncouth
wrappngs and have carpet strips and
gunny sacks tied about their feet but the
skating boys, in their scant roundabouts
and knickerbockers, have no use for such
membranes they -scurry TO and FRO
generating their own warmth, and II they
get foot now and then into the icy water,
all is one. Oh. the vital power Of the spirit
which can thus set at defiance external
nature. And let us note in passing this
touch of human nature-the lad who has
voluntarily handicapped himself with a sled
and its precious burden a pretty muffied
miss which he draws laboriously up and
down while his swallow-like companions
skim past him. 1t is easy to see what is
the matter with him: and perhaps this will
ing surrender of his perfect freedom and
the revealed touch of celestial fire in his
little bosom holds the attention as nothing
else here does.
Away from this animated group and up
the creek wander. following the trail OF
certain exploring boys, who for the sake of
little smooth stretches here and there have
dumped through snow. battered their skate
runners on stones and broken through
wherever the thin shell spanned the ripples.
Beneath these shells the water murmurs as
unsteady as though it kept time TO the
madrigals of robins and pushed its way
through the summer mint. What unseen
things are happening in those secret cham
bers that nature there should laugh SO liq-
udly while she is so silent above? All
along the banks on either side the wind has
run when the snow was soft and shifting,
and now the snow is fixed in tiny pillows
as If waveets running to the strand were
so caught and kept, The white stuff drifted
adown the banks make of the creek bed n
cradle lined with snowy satin and where
the ice is free from this coverlet great
frosty, feathery crystals have formed till
1t SENS as If eiderdown were thickly strewn
there
The frosty mist is fast fading from sight,
| but over yonder in the ay-brown- purple
| woods 1t still seems to Turk as If caught in
| that frowsy tangle. AS draw near sharp
| popping sounds occasionally salute the ear
as If some one there were striking a bludg-
| con against the tree boles. But no one is
visible, and the sound continues. here and
| there, but always afar. Can it be that
spirits haunt our groves as they did the
groves of ED?
| In these depths the jaybird clatters as
| he did in balmier days, but the wood
| pecker, very subdued now, gives infrequent
utterance to a note that has i'm 1t more OF
| hope than present joy and the sapsucker
wheezes pensively. But bark. another
sound as unexpected almost as the pipes
of Pan-the faint, indescrlbabe medley of
! the song-sparrow. And now as If one har-
! binger of the renaissance emboidened an
other. the loud CHEEKY note of the sugar
| bird comes ringing through the winter STILL
ness. / answer him. and his peter-peter-
| peter grows quick and agitated as he
| draws nearer Straight to the bare boughs
| above my head he comes and fits to and
| fro, looking down upon me with first one
eye and then the other. Manifestly he is
| overjoyed at the thought of finding a COM
panion but is sadly puzzled. Poor little
lonely pioneer. How / wish he might know
that am his true friend and that he couIo
perch here on my hand with perfect safety
] might not be TO his liking as an associate
but IL he would follow me home he should
at least have good feed and plenty of it.
Never trust your secrets to the snow. BY
| ii / see that the wood-folk have been abroad
| i'm "a furtive way. Here and there small
creatures. presumably mice. have burrowed
up to the light. leaving tiny tunnels, AND
| you may follow the little excursionist I'm al
|
there seeking out the crevices that lead t.
hidden places under logs and sticks-all the
idle veerings of his small mind revealed as
are those of the human animal. sometimes
by agencies that he wots not of. FinalI,
these tracks return whence they started
and one imagines the wee beastie" aftel
his jaunt descending again 10 his comforta
BILE lodgings and smuggling down to warn
his toes and doze once more, careless of tn,
upper world. The rabbit. too, has been on
TO cut circles and gambol to and fro Will
all the zest apparently, of a healthy boy
quite innocent of the fact that the snow I.
his betrayer; and birds descending to tn,
ground To hop about have left their recor'
there.
But my hour Is up. Yonder. scarce Z
rifle shot away. lies the town and work I,
DE done; and as the mouse and rabbit Il
their burrows utter their brief runs so &
cine. GEO. ;. COTTMAN.
Well: