THE succeeding winter was one of the most severe that had ever
been endured in the settlement. The temperature often went down
to thirty-five and even forty degrees below zero. Jock, the
drover, declared that the mercury had got so low in the town
thermometer that it fell through. Jock also asserted that, while
crossing a lake near the "dipo," on his way to the "shanty" that
winter, the frost was so severe that it froze up the words of
himself and his companions. "It wuz all right, however," he
added, "fer in the spring, on our way back, the language wuz
jest thawin’, an’ we could hear the words comin’ out uv the air
all round us." Not to be outdone, Goarden Weaver, known
throughout the settlement as "the hired man," declared it was so
cold in the "shanty" (the logging camp) that he used to trap
foxes by just turning his bob-sleighs upside down and putting
grease on the steel "Many a mornin’," he asserted, "I found es
many es seven foxes caught by their tongues, an’ offens an’
offens I found a string uv tongu