rses there.
Whenever one looked at this slope against the setting sun, the circle
showed like a pattern in the grass; and this morning, when the
first light spray of snow lay over it, it came out with wonderful
distinctness, like strokes of Chinese white on canvas. The old figure
stirred me as it had never done before and seemed a good omen for the
winter.

As soon as the snow had packed hard, I began to drive about the country
in a clumsy sleigh that Otto Fuchs made for me by fastening a wooden
goods-box on bobs. Fuchs had been apprenticed to a cabinetmaker in the
old country and was very handy with tools. He would have done a better
job if I hadn't hurried him. My first trip was to the post-office, and
the next day I went over to take Yulka and Antonia for a sleigh-ride.

It was a bright, cold day. I piled straw and buffalo robes into the
box, and took two hot bricks wrapped in old blankets. When I got to the
Shimerdas', I did not go up to the house, but sat in my sleigh at the
bottom of the draw and called. Antonia and Yulka came running out,
wearing little rabbit-skin hats their father had made for them. They
had heard about my sledge from Ambrosch and knew why I had come. They
tumbled in beside me and we set off toward the north, along a road that
happened to be broken.

The sky was brilliantly blue, and the sunlight on the glittering white
stretches of prairie was almost blinding. As Antonia said, the whole
world was changed by the snow; we kept looking in vain for familiar
landmarks. The deep arroyo through which Squaw Creek wound was now only
a cleft between snowdrifts--very blue when one looked down into it. The
tree-tops that had been gold all the autumn were dwarfed and twisted, as
if they would never have any life in them again. The few little cedars,
which were so dull and dingy before, now stood out a strong, dusky
green. The wind had the burning taste of fresh snow; my throat and
nostrils smarted as if someone had opened a hartshorn bottle. The cold
stung, and at the same time delighted one. My horse's breath rose like
steam, and whenever we stopped he smoked all over. The cornfields got
back a little of their colour under the dazzling light, and stood the
palest possible gold in the sun and snow. All about us the snow was
crusted in shallow terraces, with tracings like ripple-marks at the
edges, curly waves that were the actual impression of the stinging lash
in the wind.

The girls had on cotton