green! I stood still to enjoy the sight, then I walked on for a very
short way, when another sharp turn of the road brought me back to the
wintry landscape of bare trees and more open country. That sight can be
seen any winter now."

"I thought the country was dull in winter," said Mary.

"We have dull days, rainy days, and dark days; but then, although Nature
is so quiet, she is still alive, and there are always changes going on.

"I knew a gentleman, who is dead now, but he lived to be very old. For a
very great many years he always took one walk, at a certain hour every
Sunday morning, all the year through. It was a very ordinary country
walk--through the little town, up by the side of a fir plantation, along
hedge-rows and scattered houses, over a stile into a long ploughed field
generally planted with turnips for cattle, then over another stile,
through winding lanes that led to farm-houses and at last came out into
the public road.

"It interested him to watch the changes week after week--the first
appearing of buds in the spring time, their growth during the week, then
the bursting of the leaves. Then there was the white blossom of the
black-thorn, which comes before the leaves; then that of the white-thorn
or 'May;' the silvery blossom of the willow tree; and the yellow catkins
of the hazel, called by country children 'lamb-tails.' Then came the
wild flowers of very early spring, till, as the weeks went on, their
bloom was over with summer and autumn. Now the hedges were red with hips
and haws. At last the leaves fell, and winter came once more.

"Besides all these changes there were the birds to notice--when they