I hurried down and heard that our off-horse had died in the night of colic.

Aunt Deel was crying.

As he saw me Uncle Peabody began to dance a jig in the middle of the floor.
"Balance yer partners!" he shouted.

"You an' I ain't goin' to be discouraged if all the hosses die--be we, Bart ?" "Never," I answered.
"That's the talk! If nec'sary we'll hitch Purvis up with t'other hoss an' git our haulin' done." He and Purvis roared with laughter and the strength of the current swept me along with them.
"We're the luckiest folks in the world, anyway," Uncle Peabody went on.
"Bart's alive an' there's three feet o' snow on the level an' more comin' an' it's colder'n Greenland." It was such a bitter day that we worked only three hours and came back to the house and played Old Sledge by the fireside.
Rodney Barnes came over that afternoon and said that he would lend us a horse for the hauling.
When we went to bed that night Uncle Peabody whispered: "Say, ol' feller, we was in purty bad shape this mornin'.

If we hadn't 'a' backed up sudden an' took a new holt I guess Aunt Deel would 'a' caved in complete an' we'd all been a-bellerin' like a lot o' lost cattle." We had good sleighing after that and got our bark and salts to market and earned ninety-eight dollars.