{"product_id":"2940013748682","title":"Judith Paris","description":"The old woman and the new-born child were the only living things in\u003cbr\u003ethe house.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe old woman, Mrs. Henny, had finished her washing and laying-out\u003cbr\u003eof the bodies of the child's father and of the child's mother.  She\u003cbr\u003ehad done it alone because she had been afraid to leave the house\u003cbr\u003ewith no one alive in it save the new-born child.  Now she was\u003cbr\u003eexhausted and, in spite of her labour, fearfully chilled, for the\u003cbr\u003esnow, although it fell now more lightly, was piled high about the\u003cbr\u003edoors and windows as if, with its soft thick fingers, it wished to\u003cbr\u003estrangle the house.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eShe was very cold, so she drank some gin, although it was not as a\u003cbr\u003erule her weakness.  The bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Herries lay, the\u003cbr\u003eeyes decently closed, the pale hands folded, each in its proper\u003cbr\u003ebed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA fine heat burnt through Mrs. Henny's old body.  The gin was good.\u003cbr\u003eThen her head fell forward and she slept.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe old house rattled and squealed in the wind that was rising up\u003cbr\u003enow that the snow had almost ceased to fall.  Feet seemed to creep\u003cbr\u003eup and down the stairs, fingers were at the windows, but the dead\u003cbr\u003eand Mrs. Henny slept on.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThen, in the room where the old woman, the child, and its mother\u003cbr\u003ewere, from the window a piece of glass, very old and dark green\u003cbr\u003elike weeded water, was loosened with the wind and fell tinkling to\u003cbr\u003ethe boards.  The snow blew in like a live thing and the room was\u003cbr\u003eicily chilled.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe child that had been sleeping felt the cold and began to cry, a\u003cbr\u003eshrill cry on one note.  But Mrs. Henny heard nothing, the gin\u003cbr\u003eholding her fast.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSquire Gauntry--little Tom Gauntry--riding along the Borrowdale\u003cbr\u003epath just below the house on the farther side of the little bridge,\u003cbr\u003eheard the cry.  It was strange that from so weak a creature the cry\u003cbr\u003eshould be so clear.  He heard it, and he pulled up his horse; the\u003cbr\u003esix hounds who were with him stopped also.  The snow had but just\u003cbr\u003eceased to fall and for the first time that day.  It was so unusual\u003cbr\u003ein that country for there to be so heavy a fall that he halted and\u003cbr\u003elooked about him in wonderment.  The roofs of Rosthwaite, all the\u003cbr\u003ehills, the fields were buried in the white smooth covering, and\u003cbr\u003enow, for the first time, light began to break through.  The grey\u003cbr\u003estuff of the snowy sky was torn and a faint green field spread over\u003cbr\u003ethe dim hills, and the snow began shyly to sparkle.  The wind blew\u003cbr\u003ethe top of the snow into little smoking spirals.  Some rooks flew,\u003cbr\u003elike black leaves, cawing, breaking the sacred silence.  The green\u003cbr\u003efield spread.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHerries, the house, raised on its little hill, to Gauntry's right,\u003cbr\u003eseemed to be overwhelmed by the snow, huddled, shapeless, helpless,\u003cbr\u003eand out of that white shapelessness this thin, desolate, tiny cry\u003cbr\u003econtinued.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGauntry was eager to be home; his high black riding-coat was heavy\u003cbr\u003ewith snow, he was weary and chilled, but there was something in\u003cbr\u003ethat cry that moved him.  A hard-bitten little man, leading always\u003cbr\u003ehis own life and telling everyone else to go to the devil,\u003cbr\u003enevertheless he was sentimental too: so he turned his horse,\u003cbr\u003ecrossed the bridge over the stream, and, followed by the six\u003cbr\u003ehounds, guided the animal through the snow, and, striking with his\u003cbr\u003ewhip on the gate of the courtyard, holloaed three times.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47083170201840,"sku":"2940013748682","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013748682_p0.jpg?v=1763589737","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013748682","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}