He said that he would walk along by the side of the oxen.

Josey found it more comfortable going back, than it was coming up, for the wind was now behind him, and the snow did not drive into his face.

Jonas walked along in the snow, which was now nearly ankle deep, and after they had got out of the woods, there were some places where it had drifted much deeper.
"Do you suppose that uncle has got his frame done ?" said Josey.
"I presume he has left it, if he hasn't finished it," said Jonas.
"Why?
Why couldn't he stay out in the storm to work, as well as we ?" "Because," said Jonas, "the snow would wet his tools, and fill up his mortises, and so trouble him a great deal more than it does us.

You can't do carpenter's work out of doors in a snow-storm." "Do you mean to go after the other load ?" asked Josey.
"Yes," replied Jonas.
The boys found, when they reached the yard, that it was as Jonas had predicted.

The farmer and Amos had left their work and gone in.