PREPARATIONS 5 



snowfiakes fluttered down quietly, getting more num- 

 erous hour by hour as the wind gradually increased. 



The next morning it was a howling gale. Wiser men 

 than we would have had a rope or smooth wire running 

 from our house door to the barn door to guide us through 

 the blizzard so we could have fed the stock. After much 

 discussion as to whether it was safe, I decided that, as 

 we knew the exact directicn of the wind and as the barn 

 was long and stood broadside to the house, I would prob- 

 ably be able to find it. I backed out of the door into 

 the wind, holding my mittened hands over my face, for 

 otherwise the wind takes your breath away. The pro- 

 tection from my hands kept my eyes from being filled 

 with the snow as I worked my way to the barn. But 

 the barn door was in the lee of the building and a great 

 snowdrift had been piled up against it. Although I knew 

 where the door was I found no sign of it, and I real- 

 ized that if I dug down towards it with a shovel the drift- 

 ing snow would fill the hole faster than I could dig it. 

 Furthermore, I could not find the shovel which had been 

 buried by the snow. I considered breaking my way into 

 the barn through the roof, but decided that even if I 

 made the needed aperture, I would not be able to carry 

 hay from the stack to the barn. So I gave up and re- 

 turned to the house. 



We did not think much of this adventure at the time, 

 but I now consider it one of the most foolhardy enter- 

 prises of a career that has been in considerable part de- 

 voted to similar things. When we got to the settlement 

 months later, we heard of some twenty or thirty tragedies 

 that had resulted from this gale. Some farmers had gone 

 out in search of their barns, had never found them and 

 had been frozen to death. Others found their barns 



