The first snow came. How beautiful it was, falling so silently all day long, all night long, on the mountains, on the meadows, on the roofs of the living, on the grave of the dead. All white except the river, that marked its course by a winding black across the landscape, and the leafless tree that again the leaden sky now revealed more fully of wonderful beauty and intricacity of theiir brances. What silence too came with the snow and what was the exclusion. Every sound is muttled. Every noise changed to something soft and musical. No more churping horse. No more rattling wheels. Only the charming of sleight bells beated as sweetly and merrily as the heart of children.
