‘Six mild from home,’ Uncle Eb muttered, as he held up to rest a moment.  ’Six mild from home.  ‘Fraid we’re in fer a night uv it.’

We got to the top of Fadden’s Hill about dark, and the snow lay so deep in the cut we all got out for fear the house would tip over.  Old Doctor floundered along a bit further until he went down in the drift and lay between the shafts half buried.  We had a shovel that always hung beside a small hatchet in the sledgehouse — for one might need much beside the grace of God of a winter’s day in that country — and with it Uncle Eb began to uncover the horse.  We children stood in the sledgehouse door watching him and holding the lantern.  Old Doctor was on his feet in a few minutes.

‘’Tain’ no use tryin’,’ said Uncle Eb, as he began to unhitch.  ’Can’t go no further t’night.’

Then he dug away the snow beside the sledgehouse, and hitched Old Doctor to the horseshoe that was nailed to the rear end of it.  That done, he clambered up the side of the cut and took some rails off the fence and shoved them over on the roof of the house, so that one end rested there and the other on the high bank beside us.  Then he cut a lot of hemlock boughs with the hatchet, and thatched the roof he had made over Old Doctor, binding them with the reins.  Bringing more rails, he leaned them to the others on the windward side and nailed a big blanket over them, piecing it out with hemlock thatching, so it made a fairly comfortable shelter.  We were under the wind in this deep cut on Fadden’s Hill, and the snow piled in upon us rapidly.  We had a warm blanket for Old Doctor and two big buffalo robes for our own use.  We gave him a good feed of hay and oats, and then Uncle Eb cut up a fence rail with our hatchet and built a roaring fire in the stove.  We had got a bit chilly wading in the snow, and the fire gave us a mighty sense of comfort.

‘I thought somethin’ might happen,’ said Uncle Eb, as he hung his lantern to the ridge pole and took a big paper parcel out of his great coat pocket.  ‘I thought mebbe somethin’ might happen, an’ so I brought along a bite o’ luncheon.’

He gave us dried herring and bread and butter and cheese.

‘’S a little dry,’ he remarked, while we were eating, ’but it’s drier where there’s none.’

We had a pail of snow on top of the little stove and plenty of good drinking water for ourselves and the Old Doctor in a few minutes.

After supper Uncle Eb went up the side of the cut and brought back a lot of hemlock boughs and spread them under Old Doctor for bedding.