k was frozen. I had to
break the ice with the ax to get water. I had to spend an hour each day
cutting wood for the fireplace and bearing it into the hut. These were
the mornings when the cold bath, which I could never forego, no matter
what the circumstances were, tested my resolution. For I was sleeping in
the loft where the bitter wind fanned my cheeks during the night. Zoe
had found it too rigorous, and preferred the danger of an intruder to
the cold. Even snow sifted on my face from rifts in the shingles which
we had overlooked. But nevertheless I adhered to the morning lustration,
sometimes going to the brook to do it. I had never experienced such
cold.

Yet the months of November and December, which at the time I thought
were the extreme of winter weather, were as nothing to the polar blasts
that poured down upon us in January and February. I had no thermometer.
But judging by subsequent observations I am sure that the temperature
reached twenty degrees below zero. I took no baths in the brook now but
contented myself with a hurried splash from a pan. At night I covered
myself with all the blankets that I could support. I protected my face
with a woolen cap, which was drawn over the ears as well. Zoe, though
sleeping near the immense fire which we kept well fed with logs, got
through but a little better than I. We heated stones in hot water to
take to bed with us. All kinds of wild animals coming forth for food
were frozen in their tracks. I found wolves and foxes in abundance lying
stiffened and defeated in the woods. Some nights, seeing the light of
our candle they would howl for food and shelter; and I heard them run up
and down past the door, wisping it with their tails. Then Zoe would
cling to me. And I would take up the rifle in anticipation of the wind
opening the door and admitting the marauder. We were snowbound the whole
month of February. I had to shovel a path to the brook. But it was out
of the question for any one to go to town, or for any one to come to us.
And of course during these bitter days nothing was done on my new house.
The logs were all cut. They stood piled under the snow, except for a few
that had been put in place.

One brilliant morning in the last of February I had gone to the brook
for water. The cold had moderated to some extent. But the snow remained
deep in the woods and on the fields. For though the sun shone, the sky
was nevertheless hazed with innumerable particles of frozen