The
wind had made ripples and folds upon the surface, like what the sea,
in quiet weather, leaves upon the sand. There was a frosty stifle in
the air. An effusion of coppery light on the summit of Brown Carrick
showed where the sun was trying to look through; but along the
horizon clouds of cold fog had settled down, so that there was no
distinction of sky and sea. Over the white shoulders of the
headlands, or in the opening of bays, there was nothing but a great
vacancy and blackness; and the road as it drew near the edge of the
cliff seemed to skirt the shores of creation and void space.
The snow crunched under foot, and at farms all the dogs broke out
barking as they smelt a passer-by upon the road. I met a fine old
fellow, who might have sat as the father in 'The Cottar's Saturday
Night,' and who swore most heathenishly at a cow he was driving. And
a little after I scraped acquaintance with a poor body tramping out
to gather cockles. His face was wrinkled by exposure; it was broken
up into flakes and channels, like mud beginning to dry, and weathered
in two colours, an incongruous pink and grey.
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