Sharp Frosts 303 



But there is nothing so uncertain as frost : it may thaw, 

 and even rain, within a few hours ; and, on the other hand, 

 even after raining in the afternoon, it may clear up about 

 midnight, and next morning the ice will be a quarter of 

 an inch thick. Sometimes it will begin in so faint-hearted 

 ■a fashion that the ground hi the centre of the fields is still 

 soft, and will ' poach under the hoofs of cattle, while by 

 the hedge it is hard. But by slow degrees the cold 

 increases, and ice begins to form. Again, it will freeze 

 for a week and yet you will find very little ice, because all 

 the while there has been a rough wind, and the waves on 

 the lake cannot freeze while in motion. So that a long 

 frost is extremely difficult to foresee. 



But it comes at last, Two really sharp frosts will cause 

 ice thick enough to bear a lad at the edge of the lake ; 

 three will bear a man a few yards out ; four, and it is safe 

 to cross ; in a week the ice is between three and four 

 inches thick, and would carry a waggon. The character 

 of ice varies; if some sleet has been falling — or snow, 

 which facilitates freezing — it is thick in colour; if the 

 wind was still, it is dark, sleek, perfectly transparent. It 

 varies, however, in different places, in some having a faint 

 yellowish hue. There are always several places where the 

 ice does not freeze till the last— breathing-holes in which 

 the ducks swim ; and where a brook enters it is never 

 quite safe. 



The snipes come now to the brook and water-meadows. 

 Following the course of the stream, fieldfares and redwings 

 rise in numbers from every hawthorn bush, where they 

 have been feeding on the peggles. Blackbirds start out 

 from under the bushes, where there is perhaps a little 

 moist earth still. The foam where there is a slight fall is 

 frozen, and the current runs under a roof of ice ; the white 



