CHAPTER II 



A TRIP AFTER MOUNTAIN 

 SHEEP 



LATE one fall a spell of bitter weather 

 set in, and lasted on through the early 

 part of the winter. For many days together 

 the cold was fierce in its intensity; and the 

 wheels of the ranch-wagon, when we drove 

 out for a load of fire-wood, creaked and 

 sang as they ground through the powdery 

 snow that lay light on the ground. At night 

 in the clear sky the stars seemed to snap and 

 glitter; and for weeks of cloudless white 

 weather the sun shone down on a land from 

 which his beams glanced and glistened as if 

 it had been the surface of a mirror, till the 

 glare hurt the eyes that looked upon it. In 

 the still nights we could hear the trees a 

 and jar from the strain of the biting frost; 



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