Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1908-06-10
the window panes OF the advaneo
guards Of the north.

the window panes OF the advance
guards Of the north.
When we went into the pastures
and around the feed.lots where the
cattle crunched their cornstalks, the
snowbirds would scatter in dusky
bands, and watchful crows in the
timber cawed warily and swung from
their airy perches as we approached.
Along the rail fences the tracks of
field mice showed. and around the
shocks Of corn in the fields where the
men had been "shucking" out the
corn there were the tracks of rabbits
and quail. The slate-colored juncos
and chickadees fitted infrequently
above garden and orchard, and stray
hawks sailed past toward the river
bottom.
From the window we could see the
teams go past to town, some wagons
loaded with coal, some buggies carry
ing a lone driver. From the nostrils
OF the horses the frosty breath puffed
and curled plainly in the nipping air.
and the wheels Of the wagons squeak.
ed audibly over the close-packed
drifts. The mail carrier came regu.
larly so long as the roads were pass
able, but when infrequent thaws rem.
dered the highways an impossible
morass, we waited and watched for
him in vain. School children went by
night and morning, swinging straps
with book in maybe, or carrying
their pals or baskets with which they
had taken their dinners to school. The
drifts piled in to the fence corners.
and the Landscapes beyond and all
around us was etched against the dis.
tant horizon as clear and sharp as q
cameo. The sunsets were magnifi-
cent; the starlight nights indescrib-
ably brilliant. The dawns came cold
and red, and red and cold the sun
went down. It was strange, still,
trance-like time, where you were
thrilled with pictures of snowy
fairy-land, and yet where the warmth
of fire was like the greeting of
your best friend.
Everywhere one looked on frosty
morning there were the thin, waver-
ing columns Of farmhouse smoke
ascending into the gray dome above.
Signals Of life and endeavor; mute
heralds Of greeting from house to
house.
Some days I would take my skates
and wade through the SHOWS down to
the lake, and where l could find, as
sometimes did, a clear space which
had been swept by the brooms of the
wandering wind, would skate by my
self among the shadows cast by
blanketed tree trunks and withered
vines. Sometimes l would find in
! fine traceries of almost impalpable
snow the sign-manual of others who
had come and gone with their skates
leaving the silent spaces more silent
for their going.
Along this lake, and further in ia
where its swampy edges backed in
towards the river, there were the
tracks of mink and rabbit, Of raccoon
and prowling fox. Once saw a fox,
but it was for the fraction of Sec
ond only, and his red brush disappear
ed like a shred of trailing autumna]
vine before a winter storm.
clustered as we were in this tenn
pie of the most retired of all the sea
sons, we nevertheless found a thou
sand ways Of enjoying both indoors
and outdoors, and as the months drift
ed from November to February we
scarcely felt the rigors of the time
There were days, Of course, when
the air was like knife; when an open
door meant a blow in the face from
the wind; when neighbor stamping
in brought an icy breath from outside
that chilled to the very marrow al
most before the doors could be closed
But for the most part the winter
weather was merely bracing and in
MIGRATING. It always brought with II
the necessity of resistance; the feel
ing that something was to be met
with and overcome. It drove the Ian
guor out of the system, and while
it roughened lips and cheeks, it sent
the blood spinning through ones
veins.
Even when the January thaws gave
false feeling of early spring to the
air, there was somehow menace Of
the last months javelins to come. And
when February had stormed and cap
tured the last withered leaves of the
oaks in front of the house; when the
Canada geese flew north in trailing
and wedge.shaped flocks; when thu
ducks followed, dropping into the
fields to search for stray ears Of
corn among the tumbled stalks that
still remained; when there was &
softer blue in the skies above wher
later the earliest blue bird Quavered;
when the first violet doomed; wher
spring came on as softly as the moss
about the roots of oak and maple
even then we felt the enchantment OF
winter with us, and mourned the
passing Of the sheeted and ghostly
SHOWS.
The Safest Place.
/