Sentence:  Then a severe frost succeeds which prepares it to receive the voluminous coat of snow which is soon to follow; though it is often preceded by a short interval of smoke and mildness, called the <WSD>Indian Summer.</WSD> 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A stretch of sunny and warm, often hazy, days during late autumn. (from late 18th c., popularized in the early 19th c.)<ref>Matthews (February 1902), page 73.</ref>