118 FRUIT RANCHING. 



greenhouses. The waves, which the fierce wind drove 

 hard against the shore, froze as they fell, covering 

 the stones with a thick coating of ice. They were 

 whipped into spray, which turned into ice the moment 

 it touched anything solid, and the edge of the water, 

 or rather the margin of the sand, was slippery. When 

 I dipped my buckets into the hole that we had chopped 

 in the ice, I naturally turned my back to the hurri- 

 cane. Upon reaching the shelter of the greenhouses, 

 I found my back covered with a plate of ice. 

 Although I wore two pairs of thick, warm gloves, I 

 had to thaw out my fingers before venturing forth 

 again. Mr. Braine and I agreed that those four 

 bucketsful — his and mine — had better go up to the 

 house for our own use. We would defer the getting 

 of a supply of water for the greenhouses until next 

 morning. Perhaps the wind would have dropped by 

 then. 



And it had. During the following night the lake 

 froze completely over. At night there was a braiding 

 of ice four or five feet wide all round the lake. In 

 the morning there was not a vestige of open water 

 to be seen, and by the next day after that the ice was 

 ten, eleven, and twelve inches thick. A man who has 

 a poultry ranch immediately opposite Nelson seized 

 the opportunity to take across a big waggon sleigh, 

 drawn by two powerful horses, and filled with corn 

 for the use of his poultry. Another man led across 

 his working ox, and yet another drove a pair of 

 ponies and a light four-wheeled buggy along the ice. 



When the thermometer rose again, as it began 

 to do on the following Wednesday, ten days after 

 the first rapid fall, we kept the frost at bay inside 



