'Ah, how short are the days! How soon the night overtakes us! <br />In the old country the twilight is longer; but here in the forest <br />Suddenly comes the dark, with hardly a pause in its coming, <br />Hardly a moment between the two lights, the day and the lamplight; <br />Yet how grand is the winter! How spotless the snow is, and perfect!' <br /> <br />Thus spake Elizabeth Haddon at nightfall to Hannah the housemaid, <br />As in the farm-house kitchen, that served for kitchen and parlor, <br />By the window she sat with her work, and looked on a landscape <br />White as the great white sheet that Peter saw in his vision, <br />By the four corners let down and descending out of the heavens.<br /><br />Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/tales-of-a-wayside-inn-part-3-the-theologian-s-tale-elizabeth/
