From the dining room where he worked on cabinets, Declan could hear the lazy rise and fall of their voices, the occasional thump and tumble.

No bird sang, and there was only the occasional padded thump of snow sliding from overloaded branches to the earth beneath.

There was a flat, steady drone from the twin inboard engines, and an occasional smacking thump as they crossed another boat's wake.

Women gather by a small stream, washing clothes with an occasional thump of a wooden stick.

It was surprisingly quiet, just the sounds of birds and wind, and the occasional low thump and murmur, like someone moving something somewhere else.

Behind him he beard an occasional faint thump or clatter as the rowers took their places, but there was little noise.

Every now and then, we hear staccato bursts of gunfire, with the occasional thump of artillery.

Up here, with the door closed, she could hear an occasional thump from downstairs, but no merry voices.

She smiled and leaned back languorously, her little shoes making occasional thumps against the side of the desk.

Below me I could hear the occasional slow rnuffled thump, the clatter of shutters thrust open nearby, a cry of "Gardyloo!"