ten o'clock
The house-girl had not come . Ruth descended to the kitchen , made a fire , and cooked breakfasts . With her own hands she was serving her Love , and her heart was singing . At ten o'clock , she looked out of her window , and the snow was piled to the second story of the houses opposite , which were receiving the full fury of the blast . The wind was visible . It blew in white , roaring sheets of snow , howling , whistling , screaming , shrieking . Tin roofs , signs , battered chimney-tops , blinds , awnings , brackets , flagpoles , sheet-iron eaves and every odd and end began to crash and rain in the streets and bury themselves in the drifts .