One afternoon it began to freeze, and the frost increased with evening, which drew on like a stealthy tightening of bonds.

It was a time when in cottages the breath of the sleepers freezes to the sheets; when round the drawing-room fire of a thick-walled mansion the sitters' backs are cold, even whilst their faces are all aglow.

Many a small bird went to bed supperless that night among the bare boughs.
As the milking-hour drew near, Oak kept his usual watch upon the cowshed.

At last he felt cold, and shaking an extra quantity of bedding round the yearling ewes he entered the hut and heaped more fuel upon the stove.

The wind came in at the bottom of the door, and to prevent it Oak laid a sack there and wheeled the cot round a little more to the south.