On the highway were to be encountered waggons loaded with brushwood and logs.

The ground had become more solid, and in places was touched with frost.

Already had the snow begun to fall and the branches of the trees were covered with rime like rabbit-skin.
Already on frosty days the robin redbreast hopped about on the snow-heaps like a foppish Polish nobleman, and picked out grains of corn; and children, with huge sticks, played hockey upon the ice; while their fathers lay quietly on the stove, issuing forth at intervals with lighted pipes in their lips, to growl, in regular fashion, at the orthodox frost, or to take the air, and thresh the grain spread out in the barn.

At last the snow began to melt, and the ice slipped away: but Peter remained the same; and, the more time went on, the more morose he grew.

He sat in the cottage as though nailed to the spot, with the sacks of gold at his feet.