noon
Then everything was stowed away in the tilt . The next morning came cold and gray , with heavy , low-hanging clouds , threatening an early storm . The boat was hauled well up on the shore , and a log protection built over it to prevent the heavy snows that were soon to come from breaking it down . Before noon the first flakes of the promised storm fell lazily to the earth and in half an hour it was coming so thickly that the river twenty yards away could not be seen , and the wind was rising . The three cut a supply of dry wood and piled what they could in the tilt , placing the rest within reach of the door . Then armfuls of boughs were broken for their bed . All the time the storm was increasing in power and by nightfall a gale was blowing and a veritable blizzard raging .