NIGHT 



curled up behind the stove, and barked 

 and whined and thumped the floor with 

 his tail, all in a dream. 



When darkness settles. Night holds a 

 tragic silence in the woods — a velvety 

 softness, in which the merest sound has 

 a depth of meaning and a breadth of 

 mystery there in the gloom. One win- 

 ter's night brought a great surprise to 

 all the country folk living about the 

 neighbourhood and caused strange 

 things to happen in the Beech Woods. 

 The light failed early this evening and 

 Night settled down as usual. Early in 

 the morning hours strange noises were 

 heard that aroused vague fears. Muf- 

 fled crashing sounds came at intervals 

 and grew in number, booming out across 

 the snow-covered fields. It was discov- 

 ered by those who were disturbed by the 

 strange sounds that a heavy blanket 

 of wet snow had silently fallen, and as 

 it settled on each limb and branch the 

 weight of it brought them broken to the 

 ground. The woods were wrecked of 

 all the weaker limbs and whole trees 

 were prostrated beneath the weight of 

 this silent storm. 



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