on of the faculties may be
long postponed by the power of the will. All assaults on human nature,
whether of cold, exhaustion, terror, or any other kind, respect the
dignity of the mind, and await its capitulation before finally storming
the stronghold of life. I am as strong in physique as men average, but
I gave out before my mother. The voices of mother and Bill, as they took
counsel for our salvation, fell on my ears like an idle sound. This was
the crisis of the night.

The next thing I knew, Bill was urging us to eat some beefsteak and
bread. The former, I afterward learned, he had got out of the pantry
and cooked over the furnace fire. It was about five o'clock, and we had
eaten nothing for nearly twelve hours. The general exhaustion of our
powers had prevented a natural appetite from making itself felt, but
mother had suggested that we should try food, and it saved us. It was
still fearfully cold, but the danger was gone as soon as we felt the
reviving effect of the food. An ounce of food is worth a pound of
blankets. Trying to warm the body from the outside is working at a
tremendous disadvantage. It was a strange picnic as, perched on chairs
and tables in the dimly lighted room, we munched our morsels, or warmed
the frozen bread over the register. After this, some of us got a little
sleep.

I shall never forget my sensations when, at last, I looked out at the
eastern window and saw the rising sun. The effect was indeed peculiarly
splendid, for the air was full of particles of ice, and the sun had the
effect of shining through a mist of diamond dust. Bill had dosed us with
whiskey, and perhaps it had got into our heads, for I shouted, and my
wife cried. It was, at the end of the weary night, like the first sight
of our country's flag when returning from a foreign world.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cold Snap, by Edward Bellamy

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COLD SNAP ***

***** This file should be named 22715.txt or 22715.zip *****
This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/7/1/22715/

Produced by David Widger

Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions
will be renamed.

Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no
one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation
(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without
permission