寒暑表降到冰點下十八度的時候，我們也是在廊下睡覺。每夜最熟識的就是天上的星辰了。也不過是點點閃爍的光明，而相看慣了，偶然不見，也有些想望與無聊。

    連夜雨雪，一點星光都看不見。荷和我擁衾對坐，在廊子的兩角，遙遙談話。
 
    荷指著說：“你看維納斯（Venus）升起來了！”我抬頭望時，卻是山路轉折處的路燈。我怡然一笑，也指著對山的一星燈火說：“那邊是丘比特（Jupiter）呢！”

    愈指愈多。松林中射來零亂的風燈，都成了滿天星宿。真的，雪花隙里，看不出來天空和森林的界限，將繁燈當作繁星，簡直是抵得過。

    一念至誠的將假作真，燈光似乎都從地上飄起。這幻成的星光，都不移動，不必半夜夢醒時，再去追尋他們的位置。

    于是雨雪寂寞之夜，也有了慰安了!

    The thermometer had dropped to 18 degrees below zero, but still chose to sleep in the porch as usual. In the evening, the most familiar sight to me would be stars in the sky. Though they were a mere sprinkle of twinkling dots, yet I had become so accustomed to them that their occasional absence would bring me loneliness and ennui.

    It had been snowing all night, not a single star in sight. My roommate and I, each wrapped in a quilt, were seated far apart in a different corner of the porch, facing each other and chatting away.

    She exclaimed pointing to something afar, “Look, Venus in rising!” I looked up and saw nothing but a lamp round the bend in a mountain path. I beamed and said pointing to a tiny lamplight on the opposite mountain, “It’s Jupiter over there!”

    More and more lights came into sight as we kept pointing here and there. Lights from hurricane lamps flickering about in the pine forest created the scene of a star-studded sky. With the distinction between sky and forest obscured by snowflakes, the numerous lamp-lights now easily passed for as many stars.

    Completely lost in a make-believe world, I seemed to see all the lamplights drifting from the ground. With the illusory stars hanging still overhead, I was spared the effort of tracing their positions when I woke up from my dreams in the dead of night.

    Thus I found consolation even on a lonely snowy night !