4

casting about for something pre^sentable to say you hear a little pleasing
voice at your side begging in most winning tones - "Oh yes! Just
this once do!" And so with your best yielding ^grace you run off
to see some new celebrity and to hear for perhaps the third
time of all the marvellous things that have transpired during
your abscence. - How "Bruno" who is really the most wonderful dog
in the world, and whose loss a few weeks ago threw the whole
household into the deepest sorrow - has very miraculously been
found! How Dick the pet lamb is absolutely becoming more human
every day and seems clearly to comprehend all that is said to
him! How "the baby" [illegible] the youngest of the nephews and nieces
has actually made an attempt to articulate several words! (all
of which failed [illegible] but were quite remarkable trials
nevertheless.)
And so after listening patiently to the details of each separate
transaction, not omitting to express the expected amount of
wonder at every one you at length return to your neglected task;
but just as you have caught sight of an bright idea, the singing of
the teakettle over the bright fine changes suddenly to the chorus of
bells and in an instant you are skimmimg over the crisping snow
and enjoying with keen zest the pleasures of the world without.
Thank God for winter! say I - especially for winters
with plenty of sleighing! There is nothing short of the Fourth of July
that will give one such a delicious feeling of independence as
the cold bracing air of a January morning.
I am sure I shall never decide the hackneyed question of
what season I like best. In spring I am very sure that May
is the pleasantest month of the twelve - in June I waver a little,