Alonzo Fitz and Other Stories

It was well along in the forenoon of a bitter winter's day. The town of Eastport, in the state of Maine, lay buried under a deep snow that was newly fallen. The customary bustle in the streets was wanting. One could look long distances down them and see nothing but a dead-white emptiness, with silence to match. Of course I do not mean that you could see the silence-no, you could only hear it. The sidewalks were merely long, deep ditches, with steep snow walls on either side.