Dick heard it driving on the window panes and beating on the roof.

All the fires in the valley were out now, and rising mists and vapors hid nearly everything.

The faint, sliding sound of more snow-falls precipitated by the rain came to his ears.

He realized suddenly how fine a thing it was to be inside four walls, and with it came a great feeling of comfort.

It was the same feeling that he had known often in childhood, when he lay in his bed and heard the storm beat against the house.
There were others in the room--the floor was almost covered with them-- but all of them were asleep already, and Dick, wrapping himself in his blanket, joined them, the last thing that he remembered being the swish of the rain against the glass.