powerfully self-satisfied feeling, but I awoke to realize that pride
goeth before a fall.

I could hardly remember where I was when I awoke, and I could almost
hear the silence. Not a tree moaned, not a branch seemed to stir. I
arose and my head came in violent contact with a snag that was not
there when I went to bed. I thought either I must have grown taller or
the tree shorter during the night. As soon as I peered out, the mystery
was explained.

Such a snowstorm I never saw! The snow had pressed the branches down
lower, hence my bumped head. Our fire was burning merrily and the heat
kept the snow from in front. I scrambled out and poked up the fire;
then, as it was only five o'clock, I went back to bed. And then I began
to think how many kinds of idiot I was. Here I was thirty or forty
miles from home, in the mountains where no one goes in the winter and
where I knew the snow got to be ten or fifteen feet deep. But I could
never see the good of moping, so I got up and got breakfast while Baby
put her shoes on. We had our squirrels and more baked potatoes and I
had delicious black coffee.

After I had eaten I felt more hopeful. I knew Mr. Stewart would hunt
for me if he knew I was lost. It was true, he wouldn't know which way
to start, but I determined to rig up "Jeems" and turn him loose, for I
knew he would go home and that he would leave a trail so that I could
be found. I hated to do so, for I knew I should always have to be
powerfully humble afterwards. Anyway it was still snowing, great, heavy
flakes; they looked as large as dollars. I didn't want to start "Jeems"
until the snow stopped because I wanted him to leave a clear trail. I
had sixteen loads for my gun and I reasoned that I could likely kill