midday
But though she never forgot her christening , and could even remember things that happened before that , her wonderful journey , she found , had slipped entirely from her mind . But her mother and the three big brothers , ever reminded by the stone-piled mound on the carnelian bluff , never forgot that day : An icy blizzard , carrying in its teeth the blinding sleet that neither man nor animal could breast , was driving fiercely across the wide plains ; and the red , frame dwelling and its near-lying buildings of sod , which only the previous morning had stood out bravely against the dreary , white waste , were wrapped and almost hidden in great banks that had been caught up from the river heights and hurled with piercing roars against them . The storm had begun the day before , blowing first in fitful gusts that whistled under the eaves , sent the hay from the stacks flying through the yard , and lifted the ends of the roof shingles threateningly . It had gradually strengthened to a gale toward midday , and the steady downfall of flakes had been turned into a biting scourge that whipped up the soft cloak from the face of the open , treeless prairie and sent it lashing through the frigid air . Long before night had begun to settle down , no eye could penetrate the scudding snow a foot beyond the window ledges , except when a sudden stilling of the tempest disclosed the writhing cottonwood break to the north , and the double row of ash saplings leading south to the blotted , printless highway . With darkness , the fury of the blizzard had redoubled , and the house had rocked fearfully as each fresh blast struck it , so that the nails in the sheathing had snapped from time to time , and rung in the tense atmosphere like pistol shots . Momentary lulls -- ominous breathing-spells -- had interrupted the blizzard ; but they had served only to intensify it when it broke again .