All was so safe indoors where life went on

Glad of the close enfolding snow—O glad

To be so safe and secret at its heart,

Watching the strangeness of familiar things.

They knew not what dim hours went on, went by,

For while they slept the clock stopt newly wound

As the cold hardened. Once they watched the road,

Thinking to be remembered. Once they doubted

If they had kept the sequence of the days,

Because they heard not any sound of bells.