s a sheet of snow, at a
distance, yet with an indescribably warmer tinge than snow,--living
white, intermixed with living green. The hills and hollows beyond the
Cold Spring copiously shaded, principally with oaks of good growth, and
some walnut-trees, with the rich sun brightening in the midst of the
open spaces, and mellowing and fading into the shade,--and single trees,
with their cool spot of shade in the waste of sun: quite a picture of
beauty, gently picturesque. The surface of the land is so varied, with
woodland mingled, that the eye cannot reach far away, except now and
then in vistas perhaps across the river, showing houses, or a church and
surrounding village, in Upper Beverly. In one of the sunny bits of
pasture, walled irregularly in with oak-shade, I saw a gray mare
feeding, and, as I drew near, a colt sprang up from amid the grass,--a
very small colt. He looked me in the face, and I tried to startle him,
so as to make him gallop; but he stretched his long legs, one after
another, walked quietly to his mother, and began to suck,--just wetting
his lips, not being very hungry. Then he rubbed his head, alternately,
with each hind leg. He was a graceful little beast.

I bathed in the cove, overhung with maples and walnuts, the water cool
and thrilling. At a distance it sparkled bright and blue in the breeze
and sun. There were jelly-fish swimming about, and several left to melt
away on the shore. On the shore, sprouting amongst the sand and gravel,
I found samphire, growing somewhat like asparagus. It is an excellent
salad at this season, salt, yet with an herb-like vivacity, and very
tender. I strolled slowly through the pastures, watching my long shadow
making grave, fantastic gestures in the sun. It is a pretty sight to see
the sunshine brightening the entrance of a road which shortly becomes
deeply overshadowed by trees on both sides. At the Cold Spring, three
little girls, from six to nine, were seated on the stones in which the
fountain is set, and paddling in the water. It was a pretty picture, and
would have been prettier, if they had shown bare little legs, instead of
pantalets. Very large trees overhung them, and the sun was so nearly
gone down that a pleasant gloom made the spot sombre, in contrast with
these light and laughing little figures. On perceiving me, they rose up,
tittering among themselves. It seemed that there was a sort of playful
malice in those who first saw me; for they allowed the o