Thursday at noon
Although we had our caps pulled down over our ears and heavy mittens on , and wore all the clothes we could possibly work in , it yet seemed at times that freeze we must -- especially toward night , when we grew tired from the hard work of sawing so long and so fast . We became so chilled that we could hardly speak ; and at sunset , when we stopped work , we could hardly get across to the camp . The farmers , who were coming twice a day with their teams for ice , complained constantly of the cold ; several of them stopped drawing altogether for the time . Willis also stopped work on Thursday at noon . The people at home knew that we were having a hard time . Grandmother and the girls did all they could for us ; and every day at noon and again at night the old Squire , bundled up in his buffalo-skin coat , drove down to the lake with horse and pung , and brought us a warm meal , packed in a large box with half a dozen hot bricks . Only one who has been chilled through all day can imagine how glad we were to reach that warm camp at night .