that we were acting foolishly; for an
ancient shepherd had dropped in and taken supper with us, and foretold a
heavy fall and great disaster to live stock. He said that he had known
a frost beginning, just as this had done, with a black east wind, after
days of raw cold fog, and then on the third night of the frost, at this
very time of year (to wit on the 15th of December) such a snow set in
as killed half of the sheep and many even of the red deer and the forest
ponies. It was three-score years agone,* he said; and cause he had to
remember it, inasmuch as two of his toes had been lost by frost-nip,
while he dug out his sheep on the other side of the Dunkery. Hereupon
mother nodded at him, having heard from her father about it, and how
three men had been frozen to death, and how badly their stockings came
off from them.

* The frost of 1625.

Remembering how the old man looked, and his manner of listening to the
wind and shaking his head very ominously (when Annie gave him a glass
of schnapps), I grew quite uneasy in my bed, as the room got colder and
colder; and I made up my mind, if it only pleased God not to send the
snow till the morning, that every sheep, and horse, and cow, ay, and
even the poultry, should be brought in snug, and with plenty to eat, and
fodder enough to roast them.

Alas what use of man's resolves, when they come a day too late; even if
they may avail a little, when they are most punctual!

In the bitter morning I arose, to follow out my purpose, knowing the
time from the force of habit, although the room was so dark and gray.
An odd white light was on the rafters, such as I never had seen before;
while all the length of the room was grisly, like the heart of a mouldy
oat-rick. I went to the window at once, of course; and at first I could
not understand what was doing outside of it. It faced due east (as I may
have said), with the walnut-tree partly sheltering it; and generally I
could see the yard, and the woodrick, and even the church beyond.

But now, half the lattice was quite blocked up, as if plastered with
gray lime; and little fringes, like ferns, came through, where the
joining of the lead was; and in the only undarkened part, countless dots
came swarming, clustering, beating with a soft, low sound, then gliding
down in a slippery manner, not as drops of rain do, but each distinct
from his neighbour. Inside the iron frame (which fitted, not to say too
comfortably, and went alo