When I tried to pull in on it, the axe stuck in the crust that
covered the softer snow underneath, an' the belt slipped off the handle.
"Waal, boys, I've had my share o' disappointments in this world, I
reckon, but I think that was the hardest o' them all to bear. Howsomever,
I knew there was nothin' to do but to keep at it until I got that axe, so
after a lot o' false throws I got the loop over the handle agin. This
time it held better, and at last the head o' the axe broke through the
snow crust an' then it was easy t' pull it up to me. When I felt the haft
in my hand a little hope come back to me, an' I figgered there might be a
chance t' cut myself loose. But I was lyin' in sech a way that I couldn't
rightly get at the tree noway, an' finally I had to give up tryin'.
"I've hearn more'n once of wild animals caught in traps gnawin' their own
feet off fer the sake o' goin' free, an' the thought come to me of tryin'
to chop myself loose in the same way. I think the only thing that kept me
from doin' it was the thought that I'd rather be dead than be a cripple,
anyway.
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