CHAPTER XV 



LETTERS HOME 



Although we were now all eagerly looking for- 

 ward to spring, winter had by no means done 

 with us yet. True, we had pretty well passed 

 the days and nights of fifty or sixty degrees below 

 zero, but there were days in late February and 

 March of the blizzard character which made 

 anything but the most needful outdoor work 

 practically impossible. We had snowstorms 

 accompanied by strong winds, which not only 

 drive the snow before them, but prevent it from 

 settling except in sheltered places, where it forms 

 huge drifts. One result of this state of things 

 is that the air is filled with the driving, whirling 

 snow, which obliterates the familiar landmarks 

 beyond a few feet and renders it positively dan- 

 gerous to move about in the open. This is the 

 sort of thing that is known as a blizzard, and 

 the conditions which make it so much dreaded 

 beyond either the cold or the bitter wind, added 

 to the confusion of the elements, seem to impart 



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