COMMUTER'S WIFE 175 



shelter for the birds under the various sheds. Fi- 

 nally I struggled back to the house, surprised to find 

 myself quite spent. 



Martha Corkle was in a state of ill-concealed 

 alarm, which made her head shake ominously, in 

 spite of a painstaking dignity. 



" Mrs. Evan," she whispered, when I went to the 

 kitchen the more quickly to get a needed cup of tea, 

 " Mrs. Evan, it's a mercy the 'ouse is well victualled 

 and blankets and coals in plenty. The last time I 

 saw a storm come up like this, I was but a girl, 

 serving Mr. Evan's uncle in his shooting lodge in 

 Scotland, to the which same place he had gone to 

 keep Christmas. 



" The snow came that deep that we were not dug 

 out until Twelfth Night, and there were shepherds, 

 sheep, and cattle being turned up at times until 

 spring; the same, of course, being stiffened corpses, 

 the thought making me fearful for the doctor and 

 Timothy Saunders." 



I laughingly told her that with the stout gray 

 horses in a country of travelled roads, a few inches 

 of snow meant no danger; nevertheless, I was 

 relieved when, a little before six, father returned. 



"I've known nothing like it except the great 

 Storm of '88," he said, stamping the snow from his 



