The Great Winter

It must have snowed most wonderfully to have made that depth of covering in about eight hours. For one of Master Stickles' men, who had been out all night, said that no snow began to fall until nearly midnight. And there it was, blocking up the doors, stopping the ways and the water-courses, and making it very much worse to walk.

However, we trudged along in a line with I first, and the other men after me, trying to keep my track but finding legs and strength not up to it. Most of all, John Fry was groaning, certain that his time had come, and sending messages to his wife, and blessing his children. For all this time it was snowing harder than it ever had snowed before, and the leaden depth of the sky came down like a mine turned upside down on us.