CHAPTER IX.
They finished cutting on section seventeen during Thorpe's second week.
It became necessary to begin on section fourteen, which lay two miles to the east.

In that direction the character of the country changed somewhat.
The pine there grew thick on isolated "islands" of not more than an acre or so in extent,--little knolls rising from the level of a marsh.

In ordinary conditions nothing would have been easier than to have ploughed roads across the frozen surface of this marsh.

The peculiar state of the weather interposed tremendous difficulties.
The early part of autumn had been characterized by a heavy snow-fall immediately after a series of mild days.

A warm blanket of some thickness thus overlaid the earth, effectually preventing the freezing which subsequent cold weather would have caused.