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"I hope Zeena ain't broken anything she sets store by," she called after him as he turned the greys toward home. The fitful bursts of sleet had changed into a steady rain and the horses had heavy work even without a load behind them.
Robert Brewster Stanton, who made his successful trip through the Canyon in wintertime, comments on this as follows: "It has been the fortune of but few to travel along the bottom of the great chasm for a whole winter, while around you bloom the sweet flowers, and southern birds sing on almost every bush, and at the same time far above, among the upper cliffs, rage and roar, like demons in the air, the grandest and most terrific storms of wind and snow and sleet that I have ever witnessed, even above the clouds among the summit peaks of the Rocky Mountains."
"The gale now increased with fearful violence, waves rising like mountains, and rain and sleet pouring from the dismal clouds.
Always he was shivering from cold, sometimes wet with sleet and rain. It is recorded that at no time had the party allowed more than an ounce of food per meal to the individual, yet the rations gave out on the night of the twenty-second, while they were still in a wilderness of snow-peaks. Mr. Eddy only was better provided.
Liddell slowly put the thirteenpence half penny back in his purse, drew forth his bunch of keys, looked at them, and restored them to his pocket; then, resting his head wearily against the chair, he said, "Give me something to take and I will go to bed." Katherine hastened to obey, and summoned the servant to assist him, as usual. The next morning was cold and wet, with showers of sleet, and Mr.
Douglas; and then she only helped to prepare Katherine's body for burial. It certainly was a sad time. Even nature seemed to cast a gloom over everything much sleet fell, and everything had a dismal appearance. It was during the war and sometime before Katherine's death that Mr. Hammond used to cross our orchard going to and from his work.
But the weather, which was fine at the outset, has suddenly changed, and about ten o'clock at night there poured upon us, untented and unprotected, a furious storm of rain, sleet, and snow, making our condition almost unendurable. We are now left in a bed of almost fathomless mire. None of the men who flounder through these oozy roads, under the inclement sky, will ever forget the "Muddy March."
In going up the rigging it seemed absolutely to pin us down to the shrouds; and on the yard there was no such thing as turning a face to windward. Yet there was no driving sleet and darkness and wet and cold as off Cape Horn; and instead of stiff oilcloth suits, southwester caps, and thick boots, we had on hats, round jackets, duck trousers, light shoes, and everything light and easy.
Once I heard the dog yelp, far up the valley, and then there was only the soughing of the wind and the sting of the driving sleet flakes. And the grey mist had closed in all about me. I was alone in that storm-swept wilderness and there was no sun to guide me. I saw a shadow at my feet, and stooping down, perceived that accident had brought me back to the sleigh tracks.
But Grannie Nature was about to interfere. The spring drew gently on. It would be long ere summer was summer enough to show. There seemed more of the destructive in the spring itself than of the genial cold winds, great showers, days of steady rain, sudden assaults of hail and sleet.
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