going back was not so easy, even 

 for a Billy; he slipped and got 

 caught in a crotch and that's where 

 I found him stuck fast and frozen, 

 perhaps a month after. 



"But it ain't usual. You can't 

 never hurry a goat; you can pepper 

 the ground about with shot, you 

 can yell even, but you can't make 

 him go faster than is safe. He puts 

 every foot where it ought to go." 



That night I dreamed of the goat 

 that had made a mistake, suspended 

 in mid-air, starving and freezing 

 to death; and the next day we found 

 another foolish goat. But it was 

 a young one, and youth is the age 

 for error. 



About noon we came to a stretch 

 of glare ice, over which we were 

 proceeding with great caution, Som- 

 mers in the lead testing carefully, 

 for death lays its traps here in the 

 shape of pits where the snow has 

 melted, but the thin, surface cover- 

 ing remains, presenting to the careless 

 foot as solid a surface as the ad- 

 jacent rock. We were crawling 

 along this when a certain sound 

 instantly stopped our progress. It 



