The Lay of the Land

Оглавление

Sharp Dallas Lore. The Lay of the Land

I. The Muskrats are Building

II. Christmas in the Woods

III. A Cure for Winter

IV. The Nature-Student

V. Chickadee

VI. The Missing Tooth

VII. The Sign of the Shad-bush

VIII. The Nature Movement

IX. June

X. A Broken Feather

XI. High Noon

XII. The Palace in the Pig-pen

XIII. An Account with Nature

XIV. The Buzzard of the Bear Swamp

XV. The Lay of the Land

Отрывок из книги

On the night before this particular Christmas every creature of the woods that could stir was up and stirring, for over the old snow was falling swiftly, silently, a soft, fresh covering that might mean a hungry Christmas unless the dinner were had before morning.

But when the morning dawned, a cheery Christmas sun broke across the great gum swamp, lighting the snowy boles and soft-piled limbs of the giant trees with indescribable glory, and pouring, a golden flood, into the deep spongy bottoms below. It would be a perfect Christmas in the woods, clear, mild, stirless, with silent footing for me, and everywhere the telltale snow.

.....

So the boy climbed up again this Christmas Day at the peril of his precious neck, and brought down a bit of that old romance.

I followed the stream along through the swamp to the open meadows, and then on under the steep wooded hillside that ran up to the higher land of corn and melon fields. Here at the foot of the slope the winter sun lay warm, and here in the sheltered briery border I came upon the Christmas birds.

.....