e
lessened a little, for the crystals came down no longer crushed
into grains but with their primary, six-pointed star form intact.
These swirled over the treetops, but straight to earth behind all
wind breaks, and hung a film of flowing lace between the eye and
all distances of the nearby woods. Such a curtain the makers of
stage scenery imitate when they wish to let the audience see
through the veil into fairyland and through it we see all
beautiful things become more dainty and we know in our hearts that
all wonder-tales are true, so long as we see them made real
through the magic of this illusory veil. So through this floating,
fairy film of snowflakes it is easy to see gnomes and sprites
dancing and all the people of northland legends grow and vanish.
The children may believe in Santa Claus in bright weather with the
ground bare, and good luck to them. It is only when the snow falls
in the woodland that we elders hear the jingle of his bells in the
tinkle of ice-crystal on twig and see his reindeer lift through
the air of the woodland glade and prance to vanishment over the
treetops in a whirl of the storm. For a little the world is young
again and Santa Claus no myth, even to graybeards in the
Dorchester backwoods, when Aunt Sue's snowbank comes tumbling home
through the pine tops. On such days weather-wisdom is justified of
her children and prophets of storm have honor, even in their own
country.

*****

Most of all woodland trees, the young pines seemed to love this
dry, light snow, holding up every limb and every cluster of green
needles to receive it, stretching them upward as if in yearning
for it. I think it is quite true that in the December cold, when
there is a feel of snow in the air, the limbs of young pines do
bend a little more toward the vertical. I know that the upward
pointing needles do press a little closer to the stems on which
they grow and thus more readily tangle and hold the ice crystals
that fall upon them. The tender young shoots of this year's growth
are clothed with these close-set needles for a space of a foot or
more, averaging ten groups of five needles to the inch, all
pointing upward to the very tip, where they press around the buds
for next year's growth in a close-inverted cone. They themselves
keep the cold winds in a good measure from this young bark and
these prized buds. But they do better than that. When the snow
begins to fall they catch and hold every flake that touche