Here is an extract showing how Miss Mitchell and her family lived during one of these winters: "Jan.

22, 1857.

Hard winters are becoming the order of things.

Winter before last was hard, last winter was harder, and this surpasses all winters known before.
"We have been frozen into our island now since the 6th.

No one cared much about it for the first two or three days; the sleighing was good, and all the world was out trying their horses on Main street--the racecourse of the world.