sunshiny day, after a fresh fall of snow. The young evergreens, hemlocks,
balsams, and spruce-trees, are loaded with great masses of the new-fallen
snow; while the slender saplings of the beech, birch, and basswood are
bent down to the very ground, making bowers so bright and beautiful, you
would be delighted to see them. Sometimes, as you drive along, great
masses of the snow come showering down upon you; but it is so light and
dry, that it shakes off without wetting you. It is pleasant to be wrapped
up in warm blankets, or buffalo robes, at the bottom of a lumber-sleigh,
and to travel through the forest by moonlight; the merry bells echoing
through the silent woods, and the stars just peeping down through the
frosted trees, which sparkle like diamonds in the moonbeams."

"Nurse, I should like to take a drive through the forest in winter. It is
so nice to hear the sleigh-bells. We used sometimes to go out in the snow
in Scotland, but we were in the carriage, and had no bells."

"No, Lady Mary: the snow seldom lies long enough in the old country to
make it worth while to have sleighs there; but in Russia and Sweden, and
other cold Northern countries, they use sleighs with bells."

Lady Mary ran to the little bookcase where she had a collection of
children's books, and very soon found, in one of Peter Parley's books, a
picture of Laplanders and Russians wrapped in furs sleighing.

"How long will the winter last, nurse?" said the child, after she had
tired herself with looking at the prints; "a long, long time--a great many
weeks?--a great many months?"

"Yes, my lady; five or six months."