He did not question that the whole town was similarly overwhelmed.

Such a snow-storm had never been heard of before, and he thought with uneasy recollection of the oath he had uttered in the school-room; imagining for a moment that the whole of Glamerton lay overwhelmed by the divine wrath, because he had, under the agony of a bite from his own dog, consigned her to a quarter where dogs and children are not admitted.

In his bewilderment, he called aloud: "Nancy! Robbie! Johnnie! We're a' beeriet alive!" "Preserve's a', Robert! what's happent ?" cried his wife, rushing from the kitchen.
"I'm no beeriet, that I ken o'," cried Robert the younger, entering from the yard.
His father rushed to the back-door, and, to his astonishment and relief, saw the whole world about him.

It was a private judgment, then, upon him and his shop.

And so it was--a very private judgment.