As the frost came out of the open spaces of the garden, plowed
fields, and even the country roads, they became quagmires in which one
sank indefinitely. Seeing the vast advantage afforded to the men-folk by
rubber boots, Amy provided herself with a pair, and with something of the
exultation of the ancient Hebrews passed dry-shod through the general
moisture.
CHAPTER XX
A ROYAL CAPTIVE
In the midst of this dreary transition period Nature gave proof that she
has unlimited materials of beauty at her command at any time. Early one
afternoon the brothers were driven in from their outdoor labors by a cold,
sleety rain, and Leonard predicted an ice-storm. The next morning the world
appeared as if heavily plated with silver. The sun at last was unclouded,
and as he looked over the top of Storm King his long-missed beams
transformed the landscape into a scene of wonder and beauty beyond anything
described in Johnnie's fairy tales. Trees, shrubs, the roofs and sidings of
the buildings, the wooden and even the stone fences, the spires of dead
grass, and the unsightly skeletons of weeds, were all incased in ice and
touched by the magic wand of beauty. The mountain-tops, however, surpassed
all other objects in the transfigured world, for upon them a heavy mist had
rested and frozen, clothing every branch and spray with a feathery
frost-work of crystals, which, in the sun-lighted distance, was like a
great shock of silver hair.
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