Flour
and collect the missing five. Are you afraid to be left here alone?"
Of course I said no; but when he had disappeared, walking very fast, I
thought of a large variety of horrors that might happen; almost
everything, in fact, from an earthquake to a mad bull. As the sun leaned
far down toward the west, the level red light lay like pools of blood
in the snow-hollows, and the shadows "came alive," as they used when I
was a child lying awake, alone, watching the play of the fire on wall
and ceiling.
Long minutes passed, and at last I could sit still no longer. Gaily
risking my brother's displeasure, now I knew that he wasn't "cross," I
slipped out into the snow again, opened the car door, stood in the
doorway, hanging on with one hand, and after much manoeuvring extricated
the tea-basket from among spare tyres and luggage on the roof. Then,
swinging it down, planted it inside the car, opened it, and scooped up a
kettleful of snow. As soon as the big white lump had melted over a rose
and azure flame of alcohol, I added more snow, and still more, until the
kettle was filled with water.
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