"Let the letters wait until to-morrow." "No," said George, resolutely.

"I've waited a week already; the mail is late.

Besides, we'll have worse snow before morning." Seeing that he had made up his mind, Edgar raised no more objections, and in another few moments George disappeared into a haze of driving snow.

When he left the trail he found walking more difficult than he had expected, but though it was hard to see beyond a few yards, he had the bluff to guide him and he kept along the edge of it until the trees vanished suddenly.

Then he stopped, buffeted by the wind, to gather breath and fix clearly in his mind the salient features of the open space that he must cross.
If he could walk straight for half a mile, he would strike a small hollow and by following it he would reach a tract of cultivated ground.
This, he thought, should be marked by the absence of the taller clumps of grass and the short willow scrub which here and there broke through the snow.