A stumble every
five minutes, and over a drive of forty-five miles: that
might mean a delay of half an hour--it might mean the
difference between "in time" and "too late." I did not
know what waited at the other end of the road. It was my
business to find out, not to indulge in mere surmises
and forebodings.
So, with an effort, I forced my attention to revert to
the things around. And Nature, with her utter lack of
sentiment, is after all the only real soother of anguished
nerves. With my mind in the state it was in, the drive
would indeed have been nothing less than torture, had I
not felt, sometimes even against my will, mostly without
at any rate consciously yielding to it, the influence of
that merriest of all winter sights which surrounded me.
The fresh fall of snow, which had come over night, was
exceedingly slight. It had come down softly, floatingly,
with all the winds of the prairies hushed, every flake
consisting of one or two large, flat crystals only, which,
on account of the nearly saturated air, had gone on
growing by condensation till they touched the ground.
Such a condition of the atmosphere never holds out in a
prolonged snowfall, may it come down ever so soft-footedly;
the first half hour exhausts the moisture content of the
air.
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