But winter was full half the year. The snow began at Thanksgiving and fell snow upon snow till Fast Day, thawing between the storms, and packing harder and harder against the break-up in the spring, when it covered the ground in solid levels three feet high, and lay heaped in drifts, that defied the sun far into May. When it did not snow, the weather was keenly clear, and commonly very still. Then the landscape at noon had a stereoscopic glister under the high sun that burned in a heaven without a cloud, and at setting stained the sky and the white waste with freezing pink and violet. On such days the farmers and lumbermen came in to the village stores, and made a stiff and feeble stir about their doorways, and the school children gave the street a little life and color, as they went to and from the Academy in their red and blue woolens. Four times a day the mill, the shrill wheeze of whose saws had become part of the habitual silence, blew its whistle for the hands to begin and leave off work, in blasts that seemed to shatter themselves against the thin air. But otherwise an arctic quiet prevailed.

VARY SENTENCE LENGTHS FOR INTEREST AND EMPHASIS.  Variety is what makes your writing interesting. Material which isn't varied is often unpleasant to  read. If all your sentences are unusually long, paragraphs may seem difficult to understand. If, on the other hand, all sentences are too short, reading becomes choppy and can appear childish. You must develop your subject matter so that you can use variations in sentence length and sentence beginnings. Your ideas  must  have definite relationship to one another,  and you must  construct sentences that emphasize the subject matter  properly.  A definite beginning, middle, and end will give shape to your ideas.
VARY SENTENCE BEGINNINGS FOR INTEREST AND EMPHASIS.  Sentences of the same length can easily produce monotous, flat writing. This monotony can also result from sentences which have the same beginning pattern. Try to avoid constantly using  the subject-verb-modifiers, which can result in a flat display of ideas. Rather, try to vary the pattern by using introductory words or phrases that stress or bridge ideas, or that show time and space relationships.  The sentence that begins, "When it did not snow" is an example of a smoothness that comes from linking ideas to the preceding sentence.

ASSIGNMENT.   The tick of a clock may be agonizing in its slowness or frustrating in its speed. Write two paragraphs in which you contrast two very different experiences illustrating your idea of the way time passes.  [ Possible experiences: waiting for an incredibly dull sermon to be over on Sabbath; trying to get all your chores, shopping, etc. done before the sun goes down on Friday evening.]