A sense of preparedness for the winter.

December 13.

This morning it is snowing, and the ground is whitened. 

The countless flakes, seen against the dark evergreens like a web that is woven in the air, impart a cheerful and busy aspect to nature. It is like a grain that is sown, or like leaves that have come to clothe the bare trees. 

Now, by 9 o’clock, it comes down in larger flakes, and I apprehend that it will soon stop.

It does. How pleasant a sense of preparedness for the winter, — plenty of wood in the shed and potatoes and apples, etc., in the cellar, and the house banked up! 

Now it will be a cheerful sight to see the snows descend and hear the blast howl.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, December 13, 1855