The second of the year, and oh so cold!

Ever and anon there flittered through the air

A snow-flake, and a scanty couch of snow

Crusted the grass-walk and the garden-mould.

All was grave, silent, sinister,—when, ha?

Glimmeringly did a pack of were-wolves pad

The snow, those flames were Guido's eyes in front,

And all five found and footed it, the track,

To where a threshold-streak of warmth and light

Betrayed the villa-door with life inside,