A Winter Walk

We sleep, and at length awake to the still reality of a winter morning.

The wonderful purity of nature at this season is a most pleasing fact.

Every decayed stump and moss-grown stone and rail, and the dead leaves of autumn, are concealed by a clean napkin of snow.

In the bare fields and tinkling woods, see what virtue survives.

In the coldest and bleakest places, the warmest charities still maintain a foothold.

~Henry Thoreau
from "A Winter Walk"