Among the Celestials : vol.1 / Page 83 (Color Image)

0083	Among the Celestials : vol.1

CHAP. III.] A FROZEN MIST. 57

night in a cold so great that I have even seen

the hoar frost lying thick on an animal's back

in the morning. But they are fed enormously

while they are in work. They are given in

the day as much as sixteen pounds of grain,

besides bran and chopped millet-stalks. When

they are not at work they are eating, and the

eating and the work together occupy so much

time that I could never discover when they

slept !

The country we passed through was pretty

even in winter, and must have been really

beautiful in summer. I t was undulating, well

covered with trees, and intersected with many

little streams and rivers. At this season all

was under snow, but one morning we saw one

of the most perfectly lovely sights I have ever

seen —a frozen mist. As the sun rose we found

the whole air glittering with brilliant particles

sparkling in the rays of the sun and the mist

had encrusted everything, all the trunks of the

trees and all the delicate tracery of their out-

lines, with a coating like hoar frost. The

earth, the trees, and everything around was

glistening white, and the whole air sparkling in

the sunlight. I t lasted but a short while, for

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