nine
in the morning
The country all around this unfortunate apology for a range of hills was , if possible , flatter than ever . The Grafenbergerdahl was , properly , no `` dale '' at all , but a broad plain of meadows , with the railway cutting them at one point , then diverging and running on under the Grafenberg . One vast meadow which lay , if possible , a trifle lower than the rest , was flooded regularly by the autumn rains , but not deeply . It was frozen over now , and formed a model skating place , and so , apparently , thought the townspeople , for they came out , singly or in bodies , and from nine in the morning till dusk the place was crowded , and the merry music of the iron on the ice ceased not for a second . I discovered this place of resort by accident one day when I was taking a constitutional , and found myself upon the borders of the great frozen mere covered with skaters . I stood looking at them , and my blood warmed at the sight . If there were one thing -- one accomplishment upon which I prided myself , it was this very one -- skating .