There, Len, I
am rested now;" and he took the axe from his brother, who had been
lopping the branches from the prostrate tree.
Amy again watched his athletic figure with pleasure as he rapidly
prepared billets for the seething caldron of sap.
The day was indeed forming an illuminated page. The blue of the sky
seemed intense after so many gray and steel-hued days, and there was not
a trace of cloud. The flowing sap was not sweeter than the air, to which
the brilliant sunlight imparted an exhilarating warmth far removed from
sultriness. From the hillside came the woody odor of decaying leaves, and
from the adjacent meadow the delicate perfume of grasses whose roots
began to tingle with life the moment the iron grip of the frost relaxed.
Sitting on a rock near the crackling fire, Amy made as fair a gypsy as
one would wish to see. On every side were evidences that spring was
taking possession of the land. In the hollows of the meadow at her feet
were glassy pools, kept from sinking away by a substratum of frost, and
among these migratory robins and high-holders were feeding. The brook
beyond was running full from the melting of the snow in the mountains,
and its hoarse murmur was the bass in the musical babble and tinkle of
smaller rills hastening toward it on either side. Thus in all directions
the scene was lighted up with the glint and sparkle of water. The rays of
the sun idealized even the muddy road, of which a glimpse was caught, for
the pasty clay glistened like the surface of a stream.
Pages:
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222