So soon as the possibility of danger had gone by each would begin to feed, moving ahead.
The path then passed through the little meadows that joined the wood: and the sunlight glistened on the dew, or rather on the hoar frost that had melted and clung in heavy drops to the grass.

Here one flashed emerald; there ruby; another a pure brilliance like a diamond.

Under foot by the stiles the fallen acorns crunched as they split into halves beneath the sudden pressure.
The leaves still left on the sycamores were marked with large black spots: the horse-chestnuts were quite bare; and already the tips of the branches carried the varnish-coloured sheaths of the buds that were to appear the following spring.

These stuck to the finger if touched, as if they really had been varnished.

Through the long months of winter they would remain, till under April showers and sunshine the sheath fell back and the green leaflets pushed up, the two forming together a rude cross for a short time.
The day was perfectly still, and the colours of the leaves still left glowed in the sunbeams.