Then he arose and looked out, and hurried to his sender to wire east along the road for coal, train loads of coal, all the coal that could be hurried on! This man knew the freight of the country, in and out, and he had once trapped for a living along these same hills and plains.

He knew what was the meaning of the cloud, and the tall pointed spires of smoke, and the hurrying naked sun.
The cloud swept up and onward, and all persons closed their doors, and said that Christmas would be cold.

In a quarter of an hour they saw their chronology late by a day.

In half an hour they noted a gray mist drive across the sky.

There was a faint wavering and spreading and deflection at the top of the tallest spire of smoke.