overflowing the low banks and carrying away with resistless force
whatever buildings may be on them. After the disappearance of the snow,
some time must elapse ere the land be in a fit state for sowing,
consequently fencing, and such like, is now the farmer's employment,
either around the new clearings, or in repairing those which have fallen
or been removed during the winter. This, with attending to the stock,
which at this season require particular care, gives them sufficient
occupation--the sheep, which have long since been wearied of the
"durance vile" which bound them to the hay-rick, may now be seen in
groups on the little isles of emerald green which appear in the white
fields; and the cattle, that for six long weary months have been
ruminating in their stalls, or "chewing the cud of sweet and bitter
fancy" in the barn yards, now begin to extend their perigrinations
towards the woods, browsing with delight on the sweet young buds of the
birch tree. At this season it is, for obvious reasons, desirable that
the "milky mothers" should not stray far from home--many "a staid brow'd
matron" has disappeared in the spring, and, after her summer rambles in
the woods, returned in the "fall" with her full-grown calf by her side,
but many a good cow has gone and been seen no more, but as a white
skeleton gleaming among the green leaves. To prevent these mischances, a
bell is fastened on the leader of the herd, the intention of which is to
guide where they may be found. This bell is worn all summer, as their
pasture is the rich herbage of the forest. It is taken off during the
winter, and its first sounds now tell us, although the days are cold,
and the snow not yet gone, that brighter times are coming. The clear
concerts of the frogs ring loudly out from marsh and lake, and at this
season alone is heard the lay of the wood-robin, and the blackbird. The
green glossy leaves of the winter green, whose bright scarlet berries
look like clusters of coral on the snow, now seem even brighter than
they were--the blue violet rises among the sheltered moss by the old