noon
The moisture increased , rapidly approaching saturation point , when it must fall in snow . Hibbert watched and waited . And in the morning the world lay smothered beneath its fresh white carpet . It snowed heavily till noon , thickly , incessantly , chokingly , a foot or more ; then the sky cleared , the sun came out in splendour , the wind shifted back to the east , and frost came down upon the mountains with its keenest and most biting tooth . The drop in the temperature was tremendous , but the ski-ers were jubilant . Next day the `` running '' would be fast and perfect . Already the mass was settling , and the surface freezing into those moss-like , powdery crystals that make the ski run almost of their own accord with the faint `` sishing '' as of a bird 's wings through the air .