Page:Rural Hours.djvu/407

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THE SCHOOL-HOUSE.
367

justice, and self-discipline. Neglect of these points becomes treachery to them, treachery to our God. And without these, though complete in every other point, what is the education of an individual? However showy in other respects, without these what is the education of a nation?

November, Wednesday, 1st.—Decided frost last night; yet very mild this morning. Bright, cloudless day. Long walk on the hills. The woods are getting bare; even the willows and abele-trees are thinning. The larches are deep orange; their evergreen forms look oddly in this bright color.

The lake ultramarine blue. Saw several butterflies and parties of gnats. A full flock of snow-birds were feeding before a cottage door; and among them was a large, handsome fox-colored sparrow, one of the handsomest birds of its tribe. It seemed quite at ease among the snow-birds.

Thursday, 2d.—Very pleasant. Delightful walk in the woods. Some of the forest-trees are budding again. Found pipsissiwa and a ground-laurel, with their flowers in bud: the first plant blooms regularly about Christmas in some parts of the country, but I have never heard of its flowering here in winter. Gathered a pretty bunch of bead-ruby; the transparent berries quite perfect, and the cluster unusually large. The mosses in flower in some spots; the handsome Hypnum splendens, with its red stems, and some of the other feather mosses, Hypnum crista-castrensis, &c., &c. Ferns, sheltered by woods, in fine preservation. The earth thickly strewed with fallen leaves, completely covering the track, and in many places burying the lesser plants—a broad, unbroken carpeting of russet. This was especially the case where chestnut-trees were numerous,