One Day In A Boy’s Life in the Winter of 1906
In the winter of nineteen hundred and six the ground froze early, and after that we had many blizzards. The snow got so deep that the horses couldn’t wade through. Then it came off warm and rained for a day or so, and then turned cold so crust formed on the snow. It was about an inch thick, more or less. Our wood was cut and piled high and dry; yet we couldn’t get to it. Soon we were out of wood, something that had never happened before. Of course the snow had settled after the pouring rain. After the crust formed it would hold up a horse I knew.
I hitched the horses to the wood sled and started to go for wood. I went up the road and over the brow of the hill and turned into the barn way between walls of stone. The horses walked on the crust just the same as you or I for four or five rods, but then they broke through!
I almost cried. At first I didn’t know what to do. They were up to their bellies in snow. I took the axe the first thing and cut the crust all around them, but I left them hitched to the sled, a foolish thing to do. To turn around with the wood sled I had to break a large circle of the crust. It took me most of the day just to get turned around. Then I drove back to the road on a crust soundly frozen.
Yet we still had to have wood, and the time was short before night. The only other wood I knew I could get was in slabs and was about three miles away, but piled right beside the road, so I started quick, no time to play. It was almost dark before I got my sled full, and long after dark before I arrived home, tired and hungry too.
As soon as I got the horses in the barn and fed them I went up to the house. Mother had my supper hot. Never in my life have I been so hungry. I ate until full, then had to go back to the barn to finish caring for the horses. After I had cleaned and brushed them and bedded them down in straw, I sawed enough wood to last the night.
In the winter of nineteen hundred and six the ground froze early, and after that we had many blizzards. The snow got so deep that the horses couldn’t wade through. Then it came off warm and rained for a day or so, and then turned cold so crust formed on the snow. It was about an inch thick, more or less. Our wood was cut and piled high and dry; yet we couldn’t get to it. Soon we were out of wood, something that had never happened before. Of course the snow had settled after the pouring rain. After the crust formed it would hold up a horse I knew.
I hitched the horses to the wood sled and started to go for wood. I went up the road and over the brow of the hill and turned into the barn way between walls of stone. The horses walked on the crust just the same as you or I for four or five rods, but then they broke through!
I almost cried. At first I didn’t know what to do. They were up to their bellies in snow. I took the axe the first thing and cut the crust all around them, but I left them hitched to the sled, a foolish thing to do. To turn around with the wood sled I had to break a large circle of the crust. It took me most of the day just to get turned around. Then I drove back to the road on a crust soundly frozen.
Yet we still had to have wood, and the time was short before night. The only other wood I knew I could get was in slabs and was about three miles away, but piled right beside the road, so I started quick, no time to play. It was almost dark before I got my sled full, and long after dark before I arrived home, tired and hungry too.
As soon as I got the horses in the barn and fed them I went up to the house. Mother had my supper hot. Never in my life have I been so hungry. I ate until full, then had to go back to the barn to finish caring for the horses. After I had cleaned and brushed them and bedded them down in straw, I sawed enough wood to last the night.