Page:Rural Hours.djvu/504

Rh One always marks the ice gathering about them with regret. No change of wind or weather short of this can destroy their beauty. Even in December, when the woods are bare and dreary, when the snow hes upon the earth, the lake will often look lovely as in summer—now clear, gay blue; now still, deep gray; then again varied with delicate tints of rose and purple, and green, which we had believed all fled to the skies.

At 7 o'clock this morning the thermometer was three degrees above zero; this evening it has risen to twenty-six degrees.

Tuesday, 9th.—Much milder; no more frost-work on the windows. Sparrows flitting about. We have seen more of them than usual this winter.

The hens are beginning to lay; a few eggs brought in from the poultry-yard. The eggs of this county have a great reputation among the dealers who supply the large towns. They are considered superior to those of other counties, probably from their size; no other eggs but those of Canada rank as high as ours in the city markets.

Wednesday, 10th—Bright, cold day. Thermometer 6° below zero this morning.

The California gold mania has broken out among us. Two months since we knew nothing of these mines. Now, many of our young men, ay, and old men, too, have their heads full of them, eager to be off. A company for emigration is forming in the county, and the notices are posted up on the village trees in every direction.

How fortunate it was, or, rather, how clearly providential, that those tempting placers were not found on the Atlantic coast by our ancestors! Well for them, and for us their descendants, that the