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riverside willows, and the air during sunlit hours
had a new softness that was tolerant of life.

But with the failing of the light all stirrings
ceased. The little streams of melting snow became
still and glassy; pebbles that had rolled half-way
down some sun-warmed bank froze hard into the
mud and slush, arrested by the coldness of night.
And up over the gleaming peaks a white moon
came to stare across the hard, pale surfaces of a
frozen world.