A very cold night.
The snow, which had been falling all night, lay at three o'clock in the afternoon over the fields and the hill.

Clumps of withered grass stood out upon the hill-top; the furze bushes were black, and now and then a black shiver crossed the snow as the wind drove flurries of frozen particles before it.

The sound was that of a broom sweeping--sweeping.
The stream crept along by the road unseen by any one.

Sticks and leaves caught in the frozen grass.

The sky was sullen grey and the trees of black iron.