A Christmas frost had come at midsummer; a white December storm had whirled over June; ice glazed the ripe apples, drifts crushed the blowing roses; on hayfield and cornfield lay a frozen shroud: lanes which last night blushed full of flowers, to-day were pathless with untrodden snow; and the woods, which twelve hours since waved leafy and flagrant as groves between the tropics, now spread, waste, wild, and white as pine-forests in wintry Norway.
Il ghiaccio aveva distrutto le frutta mature e le rose fiorenti; la brina aveva ricoperto le mèssi. Ieri i sentieri erano olezzanti di fiori, oggi monti di neve incontaminata li rendono impraticabili, e i boschi, che dodici ore prima erano agitati dalla brezza profumata, si stendono ora deserti e bianchi, come le foreste di abete della Norvegia.