He stopped suddenly with a quick intake of breath.
"God!" he cried reverently.

"Hoo beautifu' are Thy works." The ice-covered Wabash circled Rainbow Bottom like a broad white frame, and inside it was a perfect picture wrought in crystal white and snow shadows.

The blanket on the earth lay smoothly in even places, rose with knolls, fell with valleys, curved over prostrate logs, heaped in mounds where bushes grew thickly, and piled high in drifts where the wind blew free.

In the shelter of the bottom the wind had not stripped the trees of their loads as it had those along the river.

The willows, maples, and soft woods bent almost to earth with their shining burden; but the stout, stiffly upstanding trees, the oaks, elms, and cottonwoods defied the elements to bow their proud heads.