k into the schoolhouse and
got her dinner-basket--lucky or providential act!--and in she climbed.
If I had been Buck Gowdy or Asher Bushyager or the Devil himself, she
would have done the same. She would have thought, of course, that it was
one of the neighbors come for her; and, anyhow, there was nothing
else to do.

As I turned back the rich robes and the jingle of the bells came to her
ears, she started; but I drew her down into the seat, and pulled the
flannel-lined coonskin robe which was under us, up over our laps; I
wrapped the army blanket and the thick buffalo-robe over and under us;
and as I did so, a little black-and-tan terrier came shivering out from
under the coonskin robe and jumped into her lap. I started to put it
down again, but she held it--and as she did she looked at my blue
sleeve, and then up at the mass of wrappings I had over my face. I
thought she snuggled up against me a little closer, then.

4

I turned the horses toward her boarding-place, which was with a new
family who had moved in at the head of the slew, near the pond for which
poor Rowena was making the day of the prairie fire; and in doing so, set
their faces right into the teeth of the gale. It seemed as if it would
strip the scalps from our heads, in spite of all our capes and
comforters and veils. Virginia pulled the robe up over her head. I had
to face the storm and manage my team; but before I had gone forty rods,
I saw that I was asking too much of them; and I let them turn to beat
off with it. At that moment I really abandoned control, and gave it over
to the wind and snow. But I thought myself steering for my own house. I
was not much worried; having the confidence of youth and strength. The
cutter was low and would not tip over easily. The horses were active and
powerful and resolute. We were nested down in the deep box, wrapped in
the warmest of robes; and it was not yet so very cold--not that cold
which draws down into the lungs; seals the nostrils and mouth; and
paralyzes the strength. That cold was coming--coming like an army with
banners; but it was not yet here. I was not much worried until I had
driven before the wind, beating up as much as I could to the east,
without finding my house, or anything in the way of grove or fence to
tell me where it was. I now remembered that I had not mounted the hill
on which my house stood. In fact, I had missed my farm, and was lost, so
far as knowing my locality was concerned: and