CHAPTER XXIV 



SNOWED IN 



TH E great disadvantage of being in the woods 

 to a man of affairs is that he has no friendly 

 distractions no boon excitements. He 

 cannot disentangle himself from the snarl of him 

 self, cannot step out into external hullabaloo. 

 That vortex which was always a near-by relief is 

 gone. He cannot drown his conscience or his 

 memory by taking a header into absolute calm. 

 He is thus in danger of becoming an incubus to 

 himself, if he is driven in upon solitude by the 

 season. He is unable to expend his emotional 

 forces along the lines of his muscles. As there 

 is nothing to see or to do, the surplus energies 

 revert to the centres and he goes up and down, 

 as you have seen the carnivora pace their cages. 



To make matters worse, it came on to snow. 

 That promised imprisonment. Charlie and I 

 watched the great flakes coming softly down thick 

 and fast, and Charlie s delight became ironical, for 



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