THE SNOW

"Announced by all the trumpets of the sky, arrives the snow;
And, driving o'er the fields, seems nowhere to alight;
The whited air hides hills and woods, the river and the heaven
And veils the farm-house at the gardens end."  Emerson.

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And when the second morning shone,
We looked upon a world unknown,
On nothing we could call our own.
Around the glistening wonder bent
The blue walls of the firmament,
No cloud above, no earth below,-
A universe of sky and snow!     Whittier.

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There was no question as to whether or not we would have a White-Christmas on Rainier this season. A snowstorm late in December which brought more than two feet of fleecy whiteness to Longmire Springs and piled snow six feet deep in the upper valleys, took care of that for us. Splendid weather with a temperature only a little below freezing has given us an ideal Christmas season and opened the winter hotel season with a bang. Trees are weighted down with snows and forest trails are fairylands of beauty. Skiing and tobogganing are the favorite sports about Longmire and many sturdy hikers are "hitting the trail" for the high country. The winter lodge at Paradise Valley is alive with the gaiety and color and the hillsides resound with the shouts of the revelers without. King Boreas is holding court on Mount Rainier and his loyal subjects have come from far and near to do him homage.