noon
In the hot summer , he would lie in the long grass and get cool ; in the cold winter , he would scamper about and get warm . When his hands were as cold as icicles , his cheeks would be red as apples . When his mother took his hands in hers , and chafed them , full of pity for their suffering , as she thought it , Willie first knew that they were cold by the sweet warmth of the kind hands that chafed them : he had not thought of it before . Climbing amongst the ruins of the Priory , or playing with Farmer Thomson 's boys and girls about the ricks in his yard , in the thin clear saffron twilight which came so early after noon , when , to some people , every breath seemed full of needle-points , so sharp was the cold , he was as comfortable and happy as if he had been a creature of the winter only , and found himself quite at home in it . For there were ruins , and pretty large ruins too , which they called the Priory . It was not often that monks chose such a poor country to settle in , but I suppose they had their reasons . And I dare say they were not monks at all , but begging friars , who founded it when they wanted to reprove the luxury and greed of the monks ; and perhaps by the time they had grown as bad themselves , the place was nearly finished , and they could not well move it .