The trees no longer sighed and moaned with the wind; on the stiffening firs lay beads of frozen snow, and the wind as it passed through them soughed.

The ghylls were fuller and louder, and seemed to come from every hill; the gullocks overflowed, but silence was stealing over the streams, and the deeper rivers seemed scarcely to flow.
Ralph and Rotha walked side by side to Shoulthwaite Moss.

It was useless for the girl to return to Fornside, Ralph had said.

Her father would not be there, and the desolate house was no place for her on a night like this.

She must spend the night under his mother's charge.
They had exchanged but few words on setting out.