The snow fell all that night, but the day broke exquisitely clear upon a white and shining world.

The sky was blue and sparkling, and the keen north wind had carved the drifts into wonderful overhanging curves, like the curling crests of breakers.
John Ward went early to Mrs.Davis's.

The sharp agony of the night before was over; there was even a momentary complacency at the importance of death, for the room was full of neighbors, whose noisy sympathy drove her despair of her husband's fate from her mind.

But when she saw John, her terror came back, and she began to be silent, and not so ready to tell the story of the dead man's bravery to each one that entered.

But with the people who were not immediately affected, the excitement of Tom's death could scarcely last.
By the afternoon his widow was for the most part alone.