rmined to retain my self-possession, I made a careful calculation
of the proper course to follow, and plunged into my work with more
vigor than ever. I continually glanced up in quest of the flickering
lights, and listened, in the hope of hearing some sound that could
guide me, but nothing of the kind was seen or heard, and it was not
long before the terrible truth burst upon me that I was lost.

Aye, and lost in a blizzard! The wind had risen almost to a hurricane;
the cold cut through the thickest clothing, and the snow struck my
face like the prick of millions of needles. I shouted again, but,
convinced that it was a useless waste of strength, I soon ceased.

It was certain death to remain motionless, and almost equally fatal to
push on; but there _was_ a possibility that I might strike the right
direction, and anything was preferable to remaining idle. And so, with
a desperation akin to despair, I threw all the vigor at my command into
my benumbed limbs, and bent every possible energy to the life and death
task before me.

The sleet drove against my cheeks with such spiteful and penetrating
fierceness that I could make no use of my eyes, I could only bend my
head to the blast and labor through the snow, praying that Providence
would guide my footsteps in the right direction.

I was plodding forward in this heavy, aimless fashion when I noticed
that the violence of the gale was drifting the snow. Sometimes I would
strike a space of several yards where it did not reach to my ankles.
Then I would suddenly lurch into a wall that reached to my shoulders.
After wallowing through this, I might strike a shallow portion again,
where, while walking quite briskly, a windrow of snow would be hurled
against my breast and face with such fury as to force me backward and
off my feet.

Bracing myself, I waited until there was a sufficient lull in the
blizzard for me to make some use of my eyes. I blinked and peered
toward the different points of the compass, but without catching the
first twinkle of light.

"I am lost--lost--" I moaned; "there is no help for me!"

An extraordinary collapse must have come over me, for my senses seemed
to forsake me on the instant. I went down in the eddying, blinding
snow, and knew no more.

At the moment of giving way I was less than a hundred yards from the
easternmost house of the village. My despairing cry was heard, and
hospitable hands carried me into the dwelling within a qua