text: That night, Grit awoke to the sound of the wind howling and snow battering the house, and he knew a winter blizzard had begun. He arose and added wood to the stove in the main room of the house. He hoped the storm wouldn't be too bad, but as he slumbered, the snow piled up against the house, the barn and the other buildings.
  
  In the morning, Grit and Paulie got the stoves in the house roaring away and then headed out to the barn.
  
  "Let's get those canvas tarps we bought and tie 'em around the horses," Grit said. "It'll help them hold their body heat."
  
  "Yeah, it feels like the temperature dropped 20 degrees overnight," Paulie said.
  
  "Sounds about right," Grit said.
  
  "I wonder how the Knudsens are doin'?"
  
  "They should be fine, but it would help those mules if he'd wrap one of those wool blankets around each of them."
  
  As they left the barn, they checked the thermometer and found that it was 16 degrees below zero. But the real problem was the wind-driven snow that blinded them. From the barn 20 yards away, they couldn't see the house at all.
  
  "I hope it doesn't get too much colder," Grit said.
  
  When they got back inside, Colleen had fixed a breakfast of bacon and hotcakes, which they ate with maple syrup. During the day, they played games and listened to the wind battering the side and back of the house. Shortly after noon, Paulie got on his coat and went back out to the barn.
  
  When he returned, Grit asked, "How bad is it?"
  
  "It's dropped to 24 below," Paulie said, "and the snow's piling up. I can't see six feet in front of my face."
  
  That night the blizzard continued, and the temperature dropped to 30 below zero.
  
  "We can't take you back to the fort, Colleen, until this storm's over," Grit told her.
  
  "I know," she said. "We'd never make it."
  
  Well after midnight, Grit awoke to an eerie stillness. He got up and looked out the front window and saw that the wind had died back and the snow had mostly stopped falling. He added wood to the stove in the main room of the house then went back to bed.
  
  Next morning, the men checked on the horses, and they seemed to be doing fine. Grit forked down hay, and Paulie shoved it into the feed boxes before adding scoops of oats. It was so cold that even the air seemed brittle. Every exhalation from the men and the horses was evident in the still air of the barn.
  
  "I guess we oughta go see about the Knudsens," Grit said.
  
  Paulie headed toward the snow-covered woodpile saying, "I'll load the wagon with wood while you get everything else ready."
  
  "Wait on that," Grit said. "I don't think there's any way we can get there in the wagon. It would probably take us all day. Look at the size of those drifts. Some of them are higher than we are."
  
  "I'm worried, Grit," Paulie said. "I think we should try to reach them on the horses if nothing else."
  
  "It'll be hard on the horses breaking through all that snow," Grit said, "but let's get 'em saddled."
  
  Before leaving, Grit told Colleen they were going to try to get through to the Knudsens, and it might take four or five hours there and back.
  
  "I'm not sure we can make it, but we'll try," Grit told her. "I've filled the wood box, so stay inside and keep warm."
  
  "Oh, don't worry," she said, "I will. And I'll have a nice hot dinner for you and Paulie when you get back."