For the present Peter felt more inclined to ponder on this discovery than to resume his labors . After Tabitha had gone down stairs he stood poring over the parchment at one of the front windows , which was so obscured with dust that the sun could barely throw an uncertain shadow of the casement across the floor . Peter forced it open and looked out upon the great street of the town , while the sun looked in at his old house . The air , though mild , and even warm , thrilled Peter as with a dash of water . It was the first day of the January thaw . The snow lay deep upon the housetops , but was rapidly dissolving into millions of water-drops , which sparkled downward through the sunshine with the noise of a summer shower beneath the eaves . Along the street the trodden snow was as hard and solid as a pavement of white marble , and had not yet grown moist in the spring-like temperature . But when Peter thrust forth his head , he saw that the inhabitants , if not the town , were already thawed out by this warm day , after two or three weeks of winter weather . It gladdened him -- a gladness with a sigh breathing through it -- to see the stream of ladies gliding along the slippery sidewalks with their red cheeks set off by quilted hoods , boas and sable capes like roses amidst a new kind of foliage . The sleigh bells jingled to and fro continually , sometimes announcing the arrival of a sleigh from Vermont laden with the frozen bodies of porkers or sheep , and perhaps a deer or two ; sometimes , of a regular marketman with chickens , geese and turkeys , comprising the whole colony of a barn-yard ; and sometimes , of a farmer and his dame who had come to town partly for the ride , partly to go a-shopping and partly for the sale of some eggs and butter . This couple rode in an old-fashioned square sleigh which had served them twenty winters and stood twenty summers in the sun beside their door . Now a gentleman and lady skimmed the snow in an elegant car shaped somewhat like a cockle-shell ; now a stage-sleigh with its cloth curtains thrust aside to admit the sun dashed rapidly down the street , whirling in and out among the vehicles that obstructed its passage ; now came round a corner the similitude of Noah 's ark on runners , being an immense open sleigh with seats for fifty people and drawn by a dozen horses . This spacious receptacle was populous with merry maids and merry bachelors , merry girls and boys and merry old folks , all alive with fun and grinning to the full width of their mouths . They kept up a buzz of babbling voices and low laughter , and sometimes burst into a deep , joyous shout which the spectators answered with three cheers , while a gang of roguish boys let drive their snow-balls right among the pleasure-party . The sleigh passed on , and when concealed by a bend of the street was still audible by a distant cry of merriment . Never had Peter beheld a livelier scene than was constituted by all these accessories -- the bright sun , the flashing water-drops , the gleaming snow , the cheerful multitude , the variety of rapid vehicles and the jingle-jangle of merry bells which made the heart dance to their music . Nothing dismal was to be seen except that peaked piece of antiquity Peter Goldthwaite 's house , which might well look sad externally , since such a terrible consumption was preying on its insides . And Peter 's gaunt figure , half visible in the projecting second story , was worthy of his house . `` Peter ! How goes it , friend Peter ? ''
cried a voice across the street as XXXXX was drawing in his head .
Noah Peter Vermont ark barn-yard day pleasure-party second sleigh winters