The second whitening of the winter.

December 22.

A slight whitening of snow last evening, the second whitening of the winter, just enough to spoil the skating, now ten days old, on the ponds. 

Walden skimmed over in the widest part, but some acres still open; will probably freeze entirely to-night if this weather holds. ...

P. M. - Got a white spruce for a Christmas-tree for the town out of the spruce swamp opposite J. Farmer's. It is remarkable how few inhabitants of Concord can těll a spruce from a fir, and probably not two a white from a black spruce, unless they are together. The woodchopper, even hereabouts, cuts down several kinds of trees without knowing what they are. Neither do the spruce trees know the villager. The villager doesn't know a black spruce tree when he sees it. How slender his relation to the spruce tree! The white has taken refuge in swamps from him. It is nothing but so much evergreen to him. 

Last night's sprinkling of snow does not now whiten the ground, except that here in the swamp it whitens the ice and already I see the tracks of rabbits on it.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, December 22, 1853

The second whitening of the winter.  See December 22, 1860 ('the second important snow.”); See also  December 5, 1853 ("The river frozen. ..  and whitened with snow , which was sprinkled on it this noon'"); November  8, 1853 (“Our first snow,. . . The children greet it with a shout when they come out at recess. ”); January 22, 1854("No second snow-storm in the winter can be so fair and interesting as the first")

Walden skimmed over in the widest part, but some acres still open. See December 26, 1853 ("Walden still open. Saw in it a small diver, . . . This being the only pond hereabouts that is open.”); December 30, 1853 ("The pond not yet frozen entirely over; about six acres open, the wind blew so hard last night.”); December 31, 1853 ("Walden froze completely over last night. It is, however, all snow ice, as it froze while it was snowing hard, and it looks like frozen yeast somewhat.”)

Here in the swamp it whitens the ice and already I see the tracks of rabbits on it.  See December 22, 1850 ("I see more tracks in the swamps than elsewhere.”) See also November 24, 1860 ("Though a slight touch, . . . The rabbits in the swamps enjoy it, as well as you.”)