A rapid thaw set in, and up through the vanishing whiteness dawned the
dark colours of the wintry landscape. For a day or two the soft wet
snow lay mixed with water over all the road. After that came mire and
dirt. But it was still so far off spring, that nobody cared to be
reminded of it yet. So when, after the snow had vanished, a hard black
frost set in, it was welcomed by the schoolboys at least, whatever the
old people and the poor people, and especially those who were both old
and poor, may have thought of the change. Under the binding power of
this frost, the surface of the slow-flowing Glamour and of the swifter
Wan-Water, were once more chilled and stiffened to ice, which every day
grew thicker and stronger. And now, there being no coverlet of snow
upon it, the boys came out in troops, in their iron-shod shoes and
their clumsy skates, to skim along those floors of delight that the
winter had laid for them. To the fishes the ice was a warm blanket cast
over them to keep them from the frost. But they must have been dismayed
at the dim rush of so many huge forms above them, as if another river
with other and awful fishes had buried theirs. Alec and Willie left
their boat--almost for a time forgot it--repaired their skates, joined
their school-fellows, and shot along the solid water with the banks
flying past them.
Pages:
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199