ad passed
it a few feet to one side.

At last (but too soon) I thought I noticed that the light was
beginning to fail; and it was certainly all the time growing colder. A
little farther on we came to a deep cut through a coteau. The cut was
so filled with new snow that we could not wade through, and the side
of the hill was covered with the old snow and so slippery that we
could not scramble over. The only thing to do was to go around it.
This I thought we could do and not get lost by keeping close to its
foot all the way around.

We started and plowed on till I thought it time to see the telegraph
poles again. We went on, but I saw the hill was not leading us right,
and turned a little the other way. Another coteau was in our path and
I turned to avoid it. For another five minutes we went on. I turned
where I was sure the railroad must be, when suddenly it seemed as if
the wind had changed and was coming out of the south. I knew it
undoubtedly had not, but by this sign I understood that I was lost. I
felt dazed and bewildered and was not sure if I were north or south of
the track. But for another fifteen minutes we struggled on. I had lost
all sense of direction. I stopped and tried to think. Every minute it
was growing colder; how long I stood there I don't know, but I
remember that I heard Kaiser whine, and started at it, and realized
that I was growing sleepy. I knew what the sleepiness which comes on
at such times means, and I turned around square to the wind and
started on.

A dozen steps away we came face to face with a big new snow-drift, its
top blown over like a great white hood. I guessed that there was an
old bank under this one. I took a stake from the sled, dropped on my
hands and knees and began to poke about for it. I soon found it, broke
through the frozen crust with the stake and began pawing out a burrow
with my hands. I dug like a scared badger and in a few minutes had a
place big enough. I wriggled out, pushed Kaiser in, took the blanket
from the sled, backed into my snow cave again and rolled up as best I
could in the blanket. In five minutes the mouth of the burrow was
drifted over and we were in total darkness.

I was not afraid to sleep now, as I knew, what with the snow, my big
coat, and the blanket, not to mention Kaiser, I would be safe enough
from freezing; so that is what I did till morning, scarce waking once.
When I did wake, though I knew no more than anything if it were
morning, I