C044

Our winters are very long and cold. The first frost of the season usually comes about the middle of August. Soon the leaves on the maple and oak trees on the hillsides turn red, yellow, and brown, forming a mass of color too beautiful to describe. Gradually the leaves fall from all the trees except the evergreens. The earliest snowfall in the Green Mountains usually comes in October. Before Christmas, deep snow sometimes covers the fields and mountains. Then I have fun. I coast on my long sled down the steep hills or go for a brisk frolic on my skis. After a heavy snowfall I go for long hikes on my snowshoes. Sometimes it is very cold. I remember when it was fifty-six degrees below zero. The old people said that was uncommonly cold even for our part of the country. All winter the ponds and streams lie quiet under their roofs of ice, but I skate like a dragonfly on their cold covers. Late in March the snow begins to melt, the ice breaks, and our long winter gives place to spring.