the living mask of green that trembled over
everything, they were lies, and this is what
was underneath. This is the truth." It was
as if we were being punished for loving the
loveliness of summer.

If I loitered on the playground after school,
or went to the post-office for the mail and lin-
gered to hear the gossip about the cigar-stand,
it would be growing dark by the time I came
home. The sun was gone; the frozen streets
stretched long and blue before me; the lights
were shining pale in kitchen windows, and I
could smell the suppers cooking as I passed.
Few people were abroad, and each one of them
was hurrying toward a fire. The glowing stoves
in the houses were like magnets. When one
passed an old man, one could see nothing of
his face but a red nose sticking out between a
frosted beard and a long plush cap. The young
men capered along with their hands in their
pockets, and sometimes tried a slide on the icy
sidewalk. The children, in their bright hoods
and comforters, never walked, but always ran
from the moment they left their door, beat-
ing their mittens against their sides. When I
got as far as the Methodist Church, I was
about halfway home. I can remember how

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p197 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p198w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p199

v?