Settlers of the Marsh

On the road leading north from the little prairie town Minor two
men were fighting their way through the gathering dusk.

Both were recent immigrants; one, Lars Nelson, a giant, of three
years' standing in the country; the other, Niels Lindstedt,
slightly above medium size, but compactly built, of only three
months'. Both were Swedes; and they had struck up a friendship
which had led to a partnership for the winter that was coming.
They had been working on a threshing gang between Minor and Balfour
and were now on their way into the bush settlement to the north-
east where scattered homesteads reached out into the wilderness.

It was the beginning of the month of November.

Niels carried his suitcase on his back; Nelson, his new friend's
bundle, which also held the few belongings of his own which he had
along. He wore practically the same clothes winter and summer.

Above five miles from town they reached, on the north road, the
point where the continuous settlement ran out into the wild, sandy
land which, forming the margin of the Big Marsh, intervened between
the territory of the towns and the next Russo-German settlement to
the north, some twenty miles or so straight ahead.

At this point the road leapt the Muddy River and passed through its
sheltering fringe of bush to strike out over a sheer waste of
heath-like country covered with low, creeping brush. The wind
which had been soughing through the tree tops had free sweep here;
and an exceedingly fine dust of dry, powdery ice-crystals began to
fly--you could hardly call it snow so far.

It did not occur to Niels to utter or even harbour apprehensions.
His powerful companion knew the road; where he went, Niels could
go.

They swung on, for the most part in silence.

The road became a mere trail; but for a while longer it was plainly
visible in the waning light of the west; in the smooth ruts a film
of white was beginning to gather.

The wind came in fits and starts, out of the hollow north-west; and
with the engulfing dark an ever thickening granular shower of snow
blew from the low-hanging clouds. As the trail became less and
less visible, the very ground underfoot seemed to slide to the
south-east.

By that time they had made about half the distance they intended to
make. To turn back would have given them only the advantage of
going with, instead of against, the gathering gale. Both were
eager to get to work again: Nelson had undertaken to dig wells for
two of the older settlers in the bush country; and he intended to
clear a piece of his own land during the winter and to sell the
wood which he had accumulated the year before.