quotes_vermont.htm



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Thirty below freezing ! It was inconceivable till one stepped into it at midnight, and the first shock of that clear, still air took away the breath as does a plunge into sea-water … The night was as keen as the edge of a newly-ground sword; breath froze on the coat lapels in snow, the nose became without sensation, and the eyes wept bitterly…

  

This is from “In Sight of Monadnock”, collected in “From Tideay to Tideway” (1892) in Letters of Travel (1892-1913).

It describes Kipling’s arrival in Brattleboro, Vermont, on a winter’s night.