Chapter 15 of Down the Snow Stairs is here in full — 126 sentences across 26 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
A keeper or guardian of historical records and memories.
Chapter XV
Chapter 15 of Down the Snow Stairs is here in full — 126 sentences across 26 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
WAS IT JOHNNIE’S FACE? HOW strange it seemed! Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene. Suddenly a bluebird flew across. It settled on a bush starry with wild white roses.
Chapter 15 of Down the Snow Stairs is here in full — 126 sentences across 26 reading sections, with audio for every sentence and word.
Reading 1/25 · 5 reading units · Lines 1–5
These definitions explain words found in the current reading and keep every example grounded in its original sentence.
Oxford-style entry order: headword, part of speech, US IPA, concise definition, contextual example, and audio.
fruit-eating mostly brilliant blue songbird of the East Indies
From this reading “Suddenly a bluebird flew across.”
a low woody perennial plant usually having several major stems
From this reading “It settled on a bush starry with wild white roses.”
move deeply
From this reading “Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.”
inflected form of “fly” — travel through the air; be airborne
From this reading “Suddenly a bluebird flew across.”
come to pass
From this reading “Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.”
plural of “rose” — any of many shrubs of the genus Rosa that bear roses
From this reading “It settled on a bush starry with wild white roses.”
established or decided beyond dispute or doubt
From this reading “It settled on a bush starry with wild white roses.”
abounding with or resembling stars
From this reading “It settled on a bush starry with wild white roses.”
English keeps certain words together, and knowing the pair is worth more than knowing each word alone. Every partnership below was counted across our whole published library, and earns its place by appearing far more often than two unrelated words of the same frequency would.
Shown as this reading writes them, with the form the library counts, what kind of pairing it is, and how often it occurs.
In this reading “Suddenly a bluebird flew across.”
In this reading “It settled on a bush starry with wild white roses.”
Every word in these five lines is listed here, and every one of them can be played on its own.
Dictionary details are shown only when verified; these are not licensed Oxford entries.
used before a singular noun to mean one of a group, when it is not a particular one
From this reading Suddenly a bluebird flew across.
from one side of something to the other
From this reading Suddenly a bluebird flew across.
(quantifier) used with either mass or count nouns to indicate the whole number or amount of or every one of a class
From this reading Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.
used to join words or parts of a sentence that go together
From this reading Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.
fruit-eating mostly brilliant blue songbird of the East Indies
From this reading Suddenly a bluebird flew across.
a low woody perennial plant usually having several major stems
From this reading It settled on a bush starry with wild white roses.
move deeply
From this reading Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.
the front of the human head from the forehead to the chin and ear to ear
From this reading WAS IT JOHNNIE’S FACE?
inflected form of “fly” — travel through the air; be airborne
From this reading Suddenly a bluebird flew across.
the act of departing
From this reading Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.
come to pass
From this reading Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading HOW strange it seemed!
a thing, animal, or idea already mentioned
From this reading WAS IT JOHNNIE’S FACE?
Dictionary entry pending editorial verification. Tap Listen to hear the word.
From this reading WAS IT JOHNNIE’S FACE?
not one thing; not anything
From this reading Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.
touching and supported by a surface
From this reading It settled on a bush starry with wild white roses.
plural of “rose” — any of many shrubs of the genus Rosa that bear roses
From this reading It settled on a bush starry with wild white roses.
the place where some action occurs
From this reading Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.
past form of “seem” — give a certain impression or have a certain outward aspect
From this reading HOW strange it seemed!
established or decided beyond dispute or doubt
From this reading It settled on a bush starry with wild white roses.
for that reason; with the result that
From this reading Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.
a thing, without saying which
From this reading Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.
abounding with or resembling stars
From this reading It settled on a bush starry with wild white roses.
not in physical motion
From this reading Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.
being definitely out of the ordinary and unexpected; slightly odd or even a bit weird
From this reading HOW strange it seemed!
happening unexpectedly
From this reading Suddenly a bluebird flew across.
used before a noun that is already known, already mentioned, or the only one of its kind
From this reading Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.
in or at that place or location
From this reading Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.
used before the base form of a verb to make the infinitive
From this reading Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.
the past form of “be” used with I, he, she, it, or a singular noun
From this reading WAS IT JOHNNIE’S FACE?
a Caucasian
From this reading It settled on a bush starry with wild white roses.
marked by extreme lack of restraint or control
From this reading It settled on a bush starry with wild white roses.
in the company of; together with
From this reading It settled on a bush starry with wild white roses.
but in spite of that
From this reading Something was going to happen, yet all was so still, and there was nothing to disturb the scene.
Chapter 15 of Down the Snow Stairs by Alice Corkran holds 126 sentences, grouped into 26 reading sections of at most 5 sentences. The text is the source edition, unabridged, and the chapter records which sentences cover which part of the work so that nothing is dropped. Every word can be tapped for its pronunciation and dictionary entry.
Chapter 15 holds 126 sentences of Down the Snow Stairs, unabridged, divided into 26 reading sections.
This page carries chapter 15 of Down the Snow Stairs by Alice Corkran exactly as it stands in the source edition, without abridgement. It runs to 126 sentences, grouped into 26 sections of at most 5 sentences so that a reader can take the chapter in steady, finishable pieces. The chapter also stores a coverage record mapping every one of its sentences to a part of the work, which is how the edition demonstrates that no line was dropped.
Work through the 26 sections in order, replaying any sentence and tapping unfamiliar words for their entries.
Each of the 26 sections in this chapter is short enough to read once, hear once, and then re-read with the vocabulary in view. Tapping a word plays it alone and opens its dictionary entry with IPA, part of speech and meaning, so the reader is never forced to guess a pronunciation from spelling. Working section by section keeps a long chapter from becoming an undifferentiated wall of text, which is the usual reason a reader abandons a work of this period.
Yes — every sentence and every individual word in chapter 15 can be played aloud in United States English.
Audio covers the whole chapter: any sentence can be played, and any single word within it can be played on its own. The voice uses United States English. For a work of this period that matters, because spelling is an unreliable guide to pronunciation for vocabulary that has fallen out of daily use, and a learner who guesses wrong tends to keep the error. Hearing the word in its own sentence, and then alone, settles it.
Common questions about reading Down the Snow Stairs by Alice Corkran on this page, its source edition and its audio.
Yes. All 2639 sentences of Project Gutenberg eBook #57413 are kept, with a record of which sentences cover which part.
Project Gutenberg eBook #57413, unabridged. The Project Gutenberg header, footer and licence are removed.
About 219 minutes of reading across 528 sections of 5 sentences each, at an unhurried pace.
How to work through Down the Snow Stairs section by section, using the audio and the tap-to-define vocabulary.
Choose one of the 16 chapters of Down the Snow Stairs to begin.
Each section holds 5 sentences; read it once through.
Play the section aloud, then tap any unfamiliar word for its entry.
Words and structures a reader meets early in Down the Snow Stairs, each tappable for pronunciation and meaning.
