Martin's new line was "Hang a shining star upon the highest bough."
The late afternoon sun cast long shadows through the forest, but the high boughs were already glimmering with their own fairy light.
And yet amid that tense godless calm the high bare boughs of all the trees in the yard were moving.
As Cranston spoke, patches of sky became visible through the higher boughs ahead.
The snake's body wrapped round it several times, then it was still, resting draped across the high bough like a soggy piece of rope.
They were talking about how "daring Arthur" used to climb the cherry tree in the back yard and wave to them from its highest boughs.
The golden star was still on its highest bough, and it glittered in the bright sunlight.
A wind had hummed through the high boughs - then the rain: big spattering drops.
As we approach, a Cooper's hawk detaches himself on the wing from a high bough and drifts into the orchard a few feet above the ground.
At length he reached a place where the high, arching boughs made a chapel.